Monsters and Aliens: Bloodthirsty Savages
by Bra1n1ac
Summary: The world is ending.  All power has gone out, all over the world.  Only the greatest villains of history can save us.  Dracula, Frankenstein, Imhotep, Gill-man, Nancy Archer, King Kong, and many more surprises.
1. Chapter 1: Powerless

Monsters And Aliens  
Bloodthirsty Savages

Chapter 1: Powerless

* * *

Jill started to turn pale as she searched through her locker. It had to be there! It just had to be! It was much too important to just get lost! She couldn't survive without it!

At last, however, Jill reached the bottom of her locker, and hissed angrily, slamming it shut in a huff. It had finally happened. Every one of the blood samples she'd brought with her was missing.

Before even another second had passed, Jill had burst out of the locker room, and across the main body of the jumbo lander she was in. As she moved through the short hallway in the middle of that lander, she passed by a long window, which revealed the outside world; the red, sandy contours of the martian landscape.

Jill had originally joined the Mars mission out of a desire for prestige and power; maybe even a foothold into the upper classes, or, she'd mused, parliament itself. She'd known that there was danger involved, but it had, in her mind, been worth the risk. However, the one thing she hadn't counted on was losing her most important possession in a confined location, with only seventeen other people around. She already suspected that she knew what had happened, but she was determined to investigate, just to be safe.

In moments, Jill Barclay had flung open the door to the main control room for the lander, and there, she saw three of her fellow crewmen; one of whom was grinning at her in an infuriating manner. Reggie Soames was one of the most aggrivating people who Jill had ever met. He seemed to go out of his way to upset her every chance he got. In fact, half the time, he acted as if all he wanted to do was sew dissention and make waves. The only reason why Jill hadn't already killed him was because it would have been difficult to get away with it in a secluded place like that. Still, if he'd done what she thought he had, then that was it. She couldn't just let that pass.

"Someone's been through my locker." Jill barked angrily, scowling at everyone in that room, and hoping that one of them would stand up, and save her the trouble of having to ask any further questions, "Some samples of mine were stolen. I want to know who did it."

However, it turned out that Jill's suspicions had been correct after all. No sooner had she finished her announcement, than Soames stood up, still grinning openly, and replied to her in a very haughty tone of voice, which made her want to strike him down where he stood.

"Jill, you know you weren't allowed to bring any living samples in your locker. They had to be kept in the cargo hold, remember?"

"Opening the cargo hold requires authorization from the captain." Jill replied back angrily, still hoping to salvage the situation in some way, "I'd have to go to a ton of trouble just to get to them if I kept them there. Are you telling me you're the one who took my things? They'd better be in one piece!"

However, when Reggie replied to that, it was obvious that he'd made a very big mistake indeed.

"Your precious samples should be in the sand by now, Jill. If you really cared about them, you should have..."

However, just then, the captain, who'd been sitting nearby, got to his feet, and his voice was strong and clear.

"That's enough! I don't care what you two have against each other, but you're both in the wrong here. Jill, you should have followed the proper procedures, so you'll need to file a formal report to the main command post in Swindon, and as for you, Reggie, you need to learn to respect other people's property. You're going to apologize to Jill right now."

"Captain, she's..."

"Now."

Reggie seemed to be on the verge of losing his temper, but he must have realized that he couldn't argue with the Captain, and gritted his teeth angrily, turning to face Jill again.

"Sorry." Reggie muttered kurtly, looking as if he didn't mean it in the least.

However, it was too late for an apology by that point. Reggie had done the worst possible thing for that mission; destroying Jill's samples, and that meant that she had only one more thing to do. Her scowl didn't fade for even a moment, as she spoke to him one more time.

"We need to talk about this. Follow me, Reggie."

Jill had spoken those last words with a very special intonation; one that she rarely dared to use. It was a tone that was directed specifically at Reggie; almost an echo, which only he could hear, and yet, it would have a profound effect on someone like him; who had no real motives, morals or will to speak of. In moments, he started to stiffen up a little, his eyes staring blankly ahead, as if searching for something a huge distance beyond the walls of the Mars lander. That was all there was to it. From that point on, Jill knew that Reggie would do whatever she said. Best of all, the captain and the other crewman in that room didn't seem to suspect a thing.

Quickly, Jill reopened the door she'd come in by, and led Reggie into the hallway beyond, then towards the window in that room. There was no one outside that window, she reasoned. After all, it was Mars. The only people there were herself and her other crewmen. When it came down to it, she could get back to Earth without their help if she had to, once she got back aboard the main shuttle. The first thing, she reasoned, was to solve her more pressing problem, though.

Grinning broadly, Jill opened her mouth as wide as she could, revealing a pair of sharp, pearly-white fangs. Her other teeth were pointed too; almost to the point of looking as if they'd been filed down, and in her eyes, there was a deep red glow, as she swept upon the hapless astronaut, and sank her teeth into his throat.

Jill felt her some of her old strength returning, as she drank deeply; absorbing what she could from the poor fool. She didn't like the taste of his thoughts or memories, but then, a wise and strong-willed person would have been much harder to victimize. At last, she could feel that she'd returned to her full power, and removed a large container from her belt, collecting more of her dead comrade's blood, in anticipation of a later need. However, just as Jill was about to make some attempt to dispose of the body, she heard a voice, which seemed to echo all around her; a deep, strong voice, that brought out a terrible fear; even in her inhuman heart.

"Bloodthirsty savages! You have ignored our warning! Now, you are doomed!"

At first, when Jill recovered from her initial shock, she started looking around for the source of the voice, but then, she saw something that sent a fresh fear through her. A bright, red light; like a blazing inferno was coming from the window. In spite of her fear, Jill quickly rushed to the window, and looked outside. There, she saw the most horrifying sight of her un-life. A massive, red beam had filled the sky of Mars for just a moment, and at last, when the beam was gone, Jill could tell that something had gone wrong. Before, she'd been able to sense the presence of the people in the shuttle, but suddenly, all of them had just vanished, as if they'd been wiped from existence.

However, Jill didn't have any time to wonder what that meant, before another red beam tore through the lander, surrounding her from all sides, and vaporizing her completely. She didn't even have a moment to react.

* * *

Lieutenant Peterson felt a lump form in his throat as he tried to listen for more information on the transmission channels, but there was nothing. It was as if, just like that, the whole Mars mission had just disappeared, and worse yet, they had no idea who or what was responsible.

"They're... They're gone sir." Peterson almost choked out to his commanding officer; General Kingston, "I'm getting nothing."

The general cursed, as he stepped forward, turning a few dials on the machines in front of them, but deep down, he must have known that it wouldn't do any good. That strange voice had come in over all the channels at once, and then a moment later, the Mars mission had vanished.

Kingston picked up the phone just a moment later. He didn't like having to report what he'd just heard, because he was afraid that it would somehow make the disaster seem more real, but after all, he did have a duty to perform.

However, the general had just barely even started to dial, when suddenly, the line went dead. There was no dial tone, or busy signal, or anything else. The phone had gone completely silent, as if it had just stopped working. Then, in one more moment, the lights overhead started flickering, and at last, everything just seemed to shut down all at once; the lights, the computers, the display screens... In fact, Kingston discovered just a moment later, even his wristwatch had stopped.

"Sir?" Peterson asked, the tension rising in his voice as he spoke, though it was obvious that everyone in that room was just as scared as he was by that point, "What's going on? What do we do?"

Kingston didn't have an answer; not for Peterson or anyone else. However, as soon as the lieutenant had asked the question, something new happened. As one, every display screen and computer terminal in the room turned on again, but the only thing displayed on them were a series of black numbers on a blue background, and they were counting down; one second at a time. It wasn't any more obvious just what those numbers meant, but, the general realized, assuming that two numbers were for seconds, two for minutes and two for hours, that countdown timer would finish in about three and a half days.

Somehow, Kingston had a feeling that the timer wasn't going to end with a party.

* * *

It was the greatest planetwide disaster in recent memory. All at once, every electrical device on planet Earth; everything that had any sort of electric current running through it had just shut down, and those machines capable of numerical displays had all begun counting down in big, black numbers. Planes had crashed, hospitals had lost patients, traffic everywhere had just stopped where it was. Computers were unresponsive, television and radio ceased to exist, and movie theaters couldn't even run their oldest projectors. Electronics as a whole had simply ground to a halt.

The worst part, however, was that mysterious timer. It was obviously in anticipation of something, but opinion was divided as to what. Some believed that when the timer finished, an even worse tragedy would occur. Others thought that the timer signified the time when the cause of that strange disaster would finally be revealed. Only a few, however, believed that the timer signified anything good; like when the power would come back on. For virtually everyone on Earth, it was a sign that doom was fast approaching.

The worst of it, of course, was the reaction of people all over the world. Riots, looting and fires broke out in nearly every major city that claimed to be civilized, and most of the ones that made no such claim, and those troubles were only made worse by the fact that most government officials seemed just as terrified as everyone else, if not unable to even think straight. It was a terrible mess, in which thousands of people died.

Still, in a desperate situation like that one, when everyone seemed to be in terrible danger, the opportunity was greatest for those seeking power.

* * *

The prime minister shivered as he put another log on the fire. He'd never expected to need the old fireplace again. After all, his estate was powered by three separate backup generators, just in case anything went wrong. The power in his rooms should have turned right back on again, in case of any simple power failure. However, whatever or whoever had caused that global blackout; in wasn't simply a series of bad connections. Something, somewhere, was interfering with the very flow of electricity, all over the world.

Of course, it scared him just as much as any of the people he served, but he knew that he couldn't let people see his fear. Without the television cameras watching his every move, that would be easier. The hard part would be getting all his cabinet members to settle down and think straight. They needed lots of information in a hurry, and they had precious few resources to use in gathering it. Still, there had to be some way to find out what was going on, and...

That was strange, the prime minister thought to himself, tossing another log onto the fire. As late as it was in the year, it seemed to be getting colder by the second, in spite of the blaze in front of him. In fact, it almost felt as if he'd left the window open...

Quickly, the prime minister got to his feet and spun around to face the window. Sure enough, he'd forgotten to lock it, and someone had climbed in through it, staring in his direction, with the fiery glare of a merciless predator. The worst part, though, was that the prime minister recognized his new visitor. It was Lord Danesbury; one of the more reclusive members of high society in the United Kingdom. He'd probably come in through a ladder, the prime minister thought for a moment, but then again, what was he doing there in the first place, and why hadn't he just knocked on the front door? What could be so important, that it would justify breaking into his room through an open window?

"Danesbury?" the prime minister demanded angrily, "What do you think you're doing? Couldn't you have come in by the front door, like everyone else?"

"You didn't answer at the front door, and your maid seems to be missing," Danesbury replied in a slightly more aggrivated tone of voice than usual, "so I realized that you were up here instead. I think we both know that we don't have a great deal of time on our hands at this point, however. It's not going to end with any simple power failure."

"Danesbury... Do you know something about what's going on here?"

In another moment, though, Lord Danesbury had pulled a slip of paper from the expensive suit he was wearing, and stepped forward, handing it to the prime minister. The moment that he saw what was written on it, however, he knew what Danesbury was trying to say. The newspaper article was from an old issue of the Gazette, and it read, it big, black letters, across what must have been the front page; "Invading Aliens Cause Global Blackout."

"I heard something about this." the prime minister remarked in amazement, as he continued to scan the article, "Some kind of alien life-form landed in the States during the fifties, and shut down almost all the power in the world, for a while."

"I have quite a few articles from around that time," Danesbury replied, "and most of them are similar to this one; full of fear and conjecture. Still, I was able to get a few facts out of them. The alien's name was Klaatu, and he had a message to deliver to mankind. He was sent to warn us that man's violence would not be permitted in space, and that if we ever tried to bring our violence to other worlds, the Earth would be reduced to a cinder. The first way in which he proved his superiority was to shut down nearly all of Earth's power for a period of thirty minutes."

The prime minister wasn't sure how to feel at that point. Since the disaster had first started, he'd wanted nothing but answers. Suddenly, he was getting a few that sounded likely, but they weren't making him any less nervous. In fact, just having Danesbury in that room was starting to make him a little antsy, and he wasn't even sure why.

"In other words," the prime minister remarked grimly, "our enemy is an alien, who's already proven that his technology is far superior to ours. Without electricity, we can't even break Earth's gravity, much less mount any kind of fighting force against him. This is worse than I thought. We don't have a prayer."

However, Danesbury's expression was starting to turn a bit blank at that point, as if he wanted to get mad at the prime minister, but was too proud to risk it. At last, straightening up a little more, he made a suggestion of his own.

"I'd like to propose that there are other ways of breaking the pull of Earth's gravity, sir," Danesbury said coldly, "and there are also other ways of fighting a battle than with mere, military force. If you need further proof of that, just look at Japan. In all the trouble they've gotten into, when was the last time they fought the old-fashioned way?"

However, the prime minister was growing more and more terrified as he listened to Danesbury's words, because he didn't like the sound of what was being proposed. At last, however, he just remarked "What are you asking me to do?"

"For some time," Danesbury replied, "I've been monitoring a group of individuals, who I think have a true chance for greatness. I'm afraid that they are all criminals of one sort or another, though. I would need your written approval to visit some of them, and your active cooperation in seeing others. However, I believe that I can gather them all into one place, and teach them proper discipline before the deadline runs out. In exchange, I want you to arrange for all of them to have their criminal records erased completely. Many are fugitives, and it will be difficult to bargain with them as it is."

However, at that point, the prime minister started chuckling, and Danesbury's scowl began to deepen in response.

"Even supposing I go along with this plan," the prime minister replied, almost snickering, "and you manage to form the finest black ops group in history, what makes you think they can fight aliens?"

"Because," Danesbury replied, "I will be with them, and I have something that none of your operatives will ever have; power."

"Power?" the prime minister asked with a sarcastic nod, though he could already feel a strange chill traveling up his spine, "If it's power they need, they should talk to me. I'm the most powerful person in the United Kingdom."

"No." Danesbury replied, however, shaking his head in a chilling, haughty manner, "You're mistaken, sir. The most powerful person in this room, right now, is me."

"What did you say?" the prime minister demanded, his anger starting to grow. However, Danesbury didn't look like he was about to back down. In fact, he seemed to be deep in thought, as if reconsidering a decision that he'd been about to make. When he spoke again, there was a strange kind of echo in his voice, which chilled the prime minister to the core.

"You're a sinful soul, sir. You may seem to be the greatest champion for good, which your whole nation has to offer, but in reality, you have been separated from true goodness for too long. The fact that others among your country have condoned worse sins is meaningless. You encourage rampant sinfulness from your position of power, and you've never repented. You would be so easy to control."

As Danesbury said that, however, something seemed to have happened, which the prime minister couldn't explain. As he listened to the echo of Lord Danesbury's words, he realized that he couldn't move, or speak, or indeed, do anything but stare into that strange man's eyes; that man who he'd once thought he understood, but who, it seemed, was much more than he appeared.

At last, one hand outstretched towards the prime minister, Danesbury advanced on him; one step at a time, and when they were only a short distance from one another, the prime minister saw something that made his blood grow cold with fear. There was a blood red color in Lord Danesbury's eyes.

"As you may have guessed already, Vincent Timothy Danesbury is little more than a name, which I assumed for my own convenience." the vampire said at last, "I could have chosen any name, in any nation, but I came here, because this was the one place that always thwarted me in the past. I knew that its people had become so skeptical, and its government so corrupt, that I would have no difficult infiltrating London in this twenty-first century, and I was right. Two hundred years past, this city nearly destroyed me, but you are too weak now. You have no power of your own."

The prime minister wanted desperately to defend himself in some way; to go for some kind of weapon, or attack the vampire as well as he could, but as much as he wanted to, he still couldn't move.

"Don't bother." the vampire replied, seeming to notice those thoughts, even as they shot through the prime minister's head, "Even if you could attack me, you could never defeat me in battle. I could have trounced the likes of you, even when I was a man. This is the kind of power that I was telling you about, and it's the kind that I intend to gather. You'll help me; either of your own free will, or under my power. The choice is yours."

With those words, the vampire lowered his arm, and the prime minister nearly fell forward, gasping for breath. He was still having a hard time believing any of that, and yet, he knew that something had happened to him; something he was powerless against. Still, even if everything that "Danesbury" had said was true, that still left him full of questions.

"Why?" the prime minister eventually gasped out in confusion, "Why didn't you do this when you first became a lord? You could have taken control at any time, and..."

"Because brute force is rarely needed, where finesse and good planning will suffice." the vampire replied, "Until now, you've never showed any sign of ignoring my will when it was important, and this is a very important matter."

By that point, though, as ridiculous as it seemed, the prime minister's regrets about helping Danesbury were starting to fade away. As ruthless as he was, and no matter what strange powers he possessed, it seemed that the vampire was only trying to save the planet Earth from destruction. It was one of the few goals that they could both cooperate on, and not feel as if their power had been abused. For the moment, then, the prime minister decided to play along with Danesbury, and hope that he could find some way of stopping him later.

"Alright." the prime minister replied at last, only halfway sure that the words were really his, even as they seeped out of his mouth, "I'll help you gather your operatives. What do you need from me?"

"That's better." Danesbury replied, "However, I'm afraid that the first will be the hardest. I'll need to be admitted, through whatever means neccesary, to the complex underneath Bunker thirty-two, in Granger Base in Ohio, in the United States. We need big muscle for this mission, and that complex holds some of the biggest in the western world..."

* * *

Danesbury looked dispassionately down at his watch again for the third time since he'd been led into that room. It was a plain white room, with no windows or decorations, aside from one water cooler and a table with a few chairs. There was virtually nothing in there to see or do, although Danesbury could hear everything nearby from where he was, including the rhythmic thudding noises that were coming from deep below; like an elephant roaming around. Danesbury found the notion fascinating, which was why he'd put up with that prolonged wait, but still, even his patience had its limits; especially when he was on a deadline. Danesbury was just getting up to head for the front desk again, and make sure his message had really been received, when the very person he'd been wanting to speak to stormed in; General Glenn. He looked like his hair was about to fall out from worry, and he didn't even spare Danesbury a second glance as he rushed over to the water cooler and started pouring two cups, although Danesbury knew that he couldn't accept the kind of drink being offered to him, waving it away as politely as he could. Glenn just shrugged a moment later, downing both cups of water, and turning to Danesbury with an unpleasant scowl, although, in all the years he'd been alive, the vampire had seen much worse.

"Well?" the general remarked a bit rudely, tossing the cups into the plastic trash can right next to the water cooler. Of course, Danesbury realized, that was his chance to explain his reason for being there. Credentials and favors could get him onto the base, but only his own skill and charm could get him into the good graces of the one commanding it.

Still, that looked like a daunting task. The general was a stout man, as well as being very tall; over six foot two; the vampire guessed. His shoulders were uncommonly broad too, and his arms and legs seemed impressively long. He would have been intimidating to any ordinary fighter. On top of that, he was clearly in a very sour mood; a fifty-something year old veteran of some kind, who was getting unpleasantly gray around the edges, and looked ready to snap at anyone he met. Still, Danesbury had a job to do.

"I'm here as an emissary of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom." Danesbury explained, oversimplifying the truth a bit; a trick he often used, "I've been charged with locating talented and powerful veterans, in the hopes of forming some kind of international strike force, to fight whatever's caused this current disaster, so considering all that, you must know why I'm here."

However, the General just looked more aggrivated when Danesbury said that, and a moment later, his reply actually confused the British lord for a moment.

"No, I don't, and I don't have time for guessing games. Either tell me what you're doing here, or leave me alone. You can't be here to recruit me."

"Fine, General." Danesbury finally replied, throwing caution to the wind, "I'd like to speak with Colonel Archer, please."

"Who?"

By that point, though, Danesbury was starting to lose his cool a little. Under the circumstances, and considering the very real danger, he didn't feel like beating around the bush.

"General Glenn, whatever happened to the power in this base has effected the whole world, and that probably means that we're all in danger. I assure you that it's in your own best interests, and the interests of your country, to cooperate with me. This is no time for secrets. You've never deployed Colonel Archer against us, and I have no intention of revealing her secret, so long as you please take me to meet with her. Her help could be vitally important."

"Mister Danesbury..." the general just replied flatly, however, looking like he was really getting irritated by that point, "You seem to know more about what goes on around here than I do. I've never heard of any Colonel Archer, and I can't imagine why you'd travel so far to talk to one woman anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a global emergency that we all need to deal with. I really don't have time for nonsense."

Danesbury was just about to start shouting at the general for being pigheaded and proud, however, when something else occurred to him, and for the first time, he wondered if General Glenn might really be ignorant of what was going on under his very nose.

"How long have you worked at Granger Base, General?" Danesbury finally asked, and that question seemed to produce a much more informative response.

"Not a long time. In fact, I was just transferred here two days ago. My predecessor; Colonel Ferris died in a fire, and I haven't even had a chance to tour the whole base yet, but I have looked over all the official maps and personnel reports."

"It wouldn't be on the official record. You wouldn't know about Colonel Archer unless you'd met her yourself."

"Then I don't know what you're talking about. I've never met any Colonel Archer."

"In that case," Danesbury suggested, getting to his feet in a casual way, "why don't we go and meet with her together? Just give me clearance to follow you, and we'll head down to the bottom floor of Bunker thirty-two. I promise; it'll be worth the time you've wasted here. In fact, this might just be the most important thing you ever do in your life."

Glenn still looked aggrivated, but seemed to realize that he couldn't negotiate effectively with Danesbury unless he knew more about the based that he was in command of. At last, with a sigh of disappointment, he turned and headed for the door, looking as if he was expecting that day to end extremely badly. Still, when he opened the door, he made one final remark to Danesbury.

"You can follow me if you want to, but no clearance. You'll get through on my authorization, or not at all. I'm getting to the bottom of this, but you're just a tourist as far as I'm concerned, and you'll need to sign a nondisclosure agreement too, just in case."

However, Danesbury didn't feel too bad about that. In fact, he was thrilled, because it meant that he was that much closer to his goal. Just getting his foot in the door had been the risky part.

* * *

Glenn remained almost completely silent as he walked through halls and down stairs into bunker thirty-two, carrying an old keroscene lamp to light the way. Of course, it was the only effective source of light that they'd been able to use down there, considering that everything else; even flashlights had just stopped working completely, which meant that it was pitch black in those underground hallways. Still, the general didn't look worried; just aggrivated and annoyed, and he was definitely still acting as if he was in control of the situation. Of course, he had no clue what he was about to see down on the lowest floor of the thirty-second bunker.

Walls and machines of various kinds passed by Glenn and Danesbury on both sides for quite a while; all of them dark and deactivated. At first, the walls seemed to be made of ordinary plaster, and the machines were coated in plastic, but as they descended, floor after floor, more and more of the walls seemed to be made of metal, and the machines were metal-plated too, as if designed to withstand heavy punishments of some kind. Danesbury started smiling the moment he saw that, because it indicated just how powerful Colonel Archer was. All that armor had to be for something important.

Soon, about ten floors down, every door had apparently once been electronically-sealed, and had to be pried open, and every wall was made of metal, and heavily armored. They were already deep underground, and the thudding noises were so much louder, that even Glenn must have been able to feel them through his boots. However, there was still no sign of the one person who Danesbury really wanted to meet, until they finally headed down one more flight of stairs, stepped through one more door, and looked into the hallway beyond. Most of that hallway was made of solid metal, but there was a transparent window along one side of it, and through that window was one of the most astonishing sights that Danesbury had ever seen, in all his centuries. In fact, it was so shocking, that General Glenn actually lost his composure completely, and screamed aloud, backing up into Danesbury in absolute, mortal terror.

Through that transparent window, lit only by some kind of fire on the floor far below, was a veritable mountain of long, black hair, perched just over yards and yards of some thick, black substance, which appeared to be some type of kevlar weave. The substance curved back and forth as it descended further and further in the chamber beyond that window; ten feet down, then twenty, then thirty, then longer still. At that moment, the mass of hair spun around, revealing an even more amazing sight; the face of a beautiful, bruenette woman. By itself, however, that face was over five and a half feet tall. She was a true modern colossus.

There was no mistaking her for any lesser mortal, Lord Danesbury thought to himself in total satisfaction. She was Colonel Nancy Archer; the only fifty-foot woman in America.


	2. Chapter 2: Danesbury's Plans

Chapter 2: Danesbury's Plans

* * *

Suddenly, a loud, female voice filled the whole chamber that Glenn and Danesbury had been just about to enter, and there was a heavy dose of surprise in that voice.

"Don't worry, general. I'm not going to hurt anybody. Maybe if you told me what happened to the lights, I could help you with your problem."

However, General Glenn didn't look like he wanted to make any deals with Nancy just yet. With impressive speed, he'd quickly ducked away from the door, and rushed back up the stairs, looking absolutely terrified of what he'd just seen in that chamber.

At first, Danesbury thought that might be his chance to talk to Nancy alone, but he was honestly a little shaken up too, and anyway, it probably wouldn't be long before Glenn recovered enough to get in his way again, so after a few seconds, Danesbury followed the general back upstairs, enduring the disappointed expression that the enormous woman was giving him from behind that large window.

Still, Nancy didn't say another word as the two men retreated up the stairs; the general looking as white as a ghost, and Danesbury feeling a bit nervous himself; though he was really more amused than afraid. In fact, every time Danesbury saw the look on the general's face, he felt even more amused.

At last, however, when Glenn seemed to feel that he'd put a fair enough distance between himself and the giantess, he started scowling at Danesbury again, as if the whole thing were somehow his fault.

"What..." Glenn finally asked, sounding very afraid again, "...what is that? Do you... Do you mind telling me what that is?"

"Your problem, apparently." Danesbury just replied in a dispassionate tone of voice, "I suggest you treat her well, general. If you become friends, you can do great things for one another."

"No." the general just replied, after a couple moments of stunned silence, "No, no, no! I want no part of this. If you want her, you can take her."

"Are you really asking me to abduct a colonel of the United States Army, general?" Danesbury asked in his usual, dispassionate tone of voice, "I have a feeling she'd resist, and even if she didn't, would you really want me to be her new commander? I mean, can you really trust me that far? No, general. She needs you, and whether you know it or not, the United States needs her; now more than ever. If you really want to serve your country, the least you can do is talk to her."

"Don't lecture me, you rich idiot!" Glenn snapped back angrily, though his defenses had been severely worn down by the impact of what he'd just seen, "You have no idea what... I mean, you're just... Don't act like you've ever gone through this yourself."

"I admit, this situation is new to me too," Danesbury conceded with a nod, "but your predecessor; Colonel Ferris, and his predecessors, Generals Spaulding... Jacobson... Sawyer... Oh, yes. I know a lot about the people who used to be in command of this base, general. You're not the first to deal with Colonel Nancy Archer, but none of them are around anymore, and they didn't leave records. Right now, if you really want to know what things were like between Ferris and Archer; what kind of arrangement they had, only one person in the world can tell you, and she's standing in that room, right there. Nothing will be accomplished, unless you talk to her."

Glenn still looked very badly shaken, but he seemed to realize that Danesbury was right. They both had duties to perform, and none of those duties were going to get done until they knew more about Miss Archer, what she was doing down there, and who she'd been taking orders from in the past. Clearly hoping that the titanic woman couldn't break through the window that separated them, Glenn got to his feet, still looking very afraid, and slowly stepped through the doorway again, to the place where he could see the fifty-foot woman's face. She was wearing a sort of hurt-looking expression, but she still seemed to be listening intently when the general spoke to her again.

"I... uh... I don't know how much of that you heard..."

However, in response, Archer said something that seemed to send a fresh chill up the general's spine.

"General Glenn, I can hear everything that goes on in this whole base. It's something about these big ears. They hear better; not worse. Don't worry, though. I'll try not to take offense. I know I can be... Well, I can be a big shock, at first."

"No..." the general remarked, sounding, at first, as if he was terrified by what Archer had just said, but then finally continuing, "No, it's not... It's not that... I... Well, you must know what I want. Are... Are you really a colonel of the United States' Army?"

"Yes, sir. I am." Archer replied without any hesitation, however, straightening up and clapping both arms to her sides, "My name, rank, promotions and honors are in the national army records, although you won't find any other information in the files; not even about where I'm stationed. My previous commanding officers thought that it would be best if not everyone knew about me, sir."

Danesbury had no difficulty believing that. After all, he hardly ever revealed his own powers to anyone, except when he knew that he was truly in control, or didn't have any other choice. When one had real power, it was wisest not to display it to the public, a lesson which, it seemed, Nancy's previous commanders had taken to heart. The only problem was that Nancy's power wasn't as easy to hide as his was. The only way to really hide it, it seemed, had been to hide her.

"In that case, colonel, I need a briefing on this whole situation. Colonel Ferris died in an accident, and didn't have time to give me all the specifics of this operation. I need y... I need you to remember all you can about what happened; how this happened to you, c-colonel. Also, we're on a time limit, so if you can, I'd l-like you to sum it up."

If Danesbury had been any other kind of person, he might have felt bad for General Glenn. It was a rough situation to be in, and as many battles as the general had been in in the past, he clearly hadn't been prepared to confront something like Nancy. Still, he was trying his best to make things work out, and it was going to be a big challenge. Worse yet, as cooperative and obedient as Nancy was being, it seemed like she wanted more from him.

"Yes, sir, but I... I'm sorry. I wonder if you might be willing to talk to me in here, sir? Just as a gesture of trust? I mean, if you're too scared, it's alright..."

However, at that point, the general's face was turning very red, and before too much time had passed, he actually shouted at Nancy.

"That's enough, colonel! You are not going to question my motives! If you're really under my command, then act like it!"

"Yes, sir!" Nancy replied quickly, snapping to attention again, although in the dim, red light of that chamber, it only made her look more threatening, "In that case, sir, I just want to make one request; the other ranking officers who've come down here from time to time; please don't blame them for not telling you about me. I'm sure they would have given you a full report when they thought you were ready to listen."

For a moment, General Glenn just looked startled, as if he'd never even thought about the others who knew about Nancy's existence, but he didn't seem to want to show any weakness to someone who was obviously so big and strong. Soon, the general's expression returned to normal, and he just replied, "I'll think about it, colonel. Now, report."

Nancy didn't look satisfied, and she didn't seem anywhere near as disciplined as most army veterans, but she started to make her report anyway.

"Sir, when I was young, I encountered an alien giant, and had a run-in with his space ship, while he was gathering diamonds to use for some kind of fuel. Without getting into the personal stuff, I grew to fifty feet tall just a short time after that; presumably because of something the alien did to me. I was all in a haze when it happened, though, and I was furious too, so I went on a brief escapade, destroying my house, and a bar, and killing two people; an adulteress and an attempted murderer. I was knocked out by an exploding transformer just shortly after that, and brought here by General Sawyer. The experts looked over me, and found that the chemicals in my brain weren't properly-balanced, so they gave me some medicine, to help return my mind to normal, and now, here I am."

"In other words, you're trying to tell me that some chemical imbalance was the reason you went on a rampage." General Glenn remarked, apparently not fully taking Nancy's word, but he looked even more surprised when she replied to him.

"That or the alcohol, sir. I'd been drinking pretty heavily the night before, and that may have had some effect on me when I expanded. I wasn't behaving rationally after my transformation, though, and two people died because of that. I won't try to defend what I did that night. Even before I transformed, I'd never been very responsible. I'd like to think I wouldn't have killed those people if not for the strange chemical aberration, but I can never really be sure, sir."

For some reason, Glenn seemed to have relaxed just a bit when Nancy had said that. It was almost as if her apparent frankness and maturity had struck a chord with the general, earning his trust; at least for the moment. However it had happened, Glenn was much calmer when he asked his next question.

"So that puts you in this chamber; fifty feet tall, and under Sawyer's command?"

"Well, no sir." Nancy replied, however, blushing just a bit, though it was hard to make it out in the firelight coming from below, "You see, this was back in nineteen fifty-eight, and I'd been living a life of wastefulness up to that point. As I said, I had a drinking problem, and I'd even been institutionalized once, when I'd been unwilling to face the world earlier in life. I was always pretty spoiled when I was younger, and being stuck in this place didn't sit well with me, sir. I kept threatening to break out, until General Sawyer told me that even if he did let me out, I'd have to stand trial for two murders. After that, he left me alone for about a week to think about things. I don't think I'd ever spent much time thinking before that, but after a while, I realized that I had to try to make the most of my situation. It was a long time before I really grew up, though, sir, and even longer before I was commissioned in secret."

"Sawyer was my first commander," Nancy continued explaining, "and we made a few bargains together. He told me that if I helped out the national guard with the some problems in the future, without letting on that I was working for them, then he'd give me a fair wage, and help me improve my living conditions down here. I agreed, and we had a fairly profitable relationship after that. I basically had the same relationship with General Jacobson, and with General Spaulding, sir, and although Colonel Ferris never sent me anywhere, I would have been willing to work with him too, just to get out for some fresh air. It's nice having plants down here, and it really helps, but nothing beats wide open spaces, and the great outdoors, sir."

That seemed to be the first time that Glenn noticed the plants that were in the larger room with Nancy, as well as the large lamps which, it seemed, had once given them the light they'd needed to survive. There were various kinds of big ferns, flower beds, and even trees. Next to Nancy, they looked positively shrimpy, but to any normal man, the place would have looked like a jungle. The only reason he hadn't noticed all those plants before was because of the dim lighting in that chamber, which made it difficult to see anything. Even Nancy herself was only barely visible. However, it seemed that she still wasn't quite finished telling her story.

"There's one last thing, sir. I'm not the only one in here."

At that point, the general's expression started to tighten, which Nancy seemed to recognize, even in that poor light, as a look of nervous concern, so she finished her statement quickly.

"About ten years ago, I got a partner, and you'd... Well, you'd have to see him for yourself. Don't worry, though. He can be a little rough at first, but he's not a bad guy. He's over there..."

With those words, Nancy raised one of her arms, and pointed across the huge, airport-sized chamber she was standing in, to where a large, dark shape was lying on the ground, rising and falling, and making snoring noises. Glenn swallowed hard again at that point. As poor as the lighting was, he must have recognized that huge figure. It wasn't as big as Nancy, but it was still enormous, and built like a tank. It might have been a good twenty-five or thirty feet tall, if it had been standing up, and it was covered in gray and black hair, as well as a thick, leathery hide. Its snoring was noticable, and although it was facing away from Glenn and Danesbury, it was easy to tell just what that creature was. It was a full-grown gorilla; the size of a small apartment building.

"What?" The general exclaimed, watching the huge brute snore on the floor of that jungle-like chamber, "You mean Kong... Kong was here, this whole time?"

"Only for the last ten years or so." Nancy replied, her professional expression starting to fade away again, being replaced by a look of nervous worry, "Before that, there was some mix-up, which raised havok with his body chemistry, or something. I forget the details, exactly, but the doctors say that he used to be a lot bigger, then eventually returned to his original size. They said it had something to do with the fake heart that someone tried to give him after the accident, but I don't remember what, exactly. Since he returned to normal, though, he's been pretty much behaving himself. We're friends now, I guess, though it's a little hard to tell with him. He's got a pretty big ego."

Glenn seemed to be reacting well to all the strange sights he was seeing that day, although he was still shaking his head in amazement and fear, staring at the enormous gorilla. Obviously, he'd been totally unprepared for the great, big secret that bunker thirty-two had contained. He muttered to himself for a few moments at first, but eventually, he looked up at Nancy with a smile that was probably meant to look friendly, though he couldn't completely hide the agitation he still clearly felt.

"I guess it must be easier to be friends with King Kong when you can beat him in a wrestling match." the general observed, but that was when Nancy's expression started to fall just a little.

"General..." Nancy explained, looking a little sheepish, as she turned off to one side, "I've never beaten him in any of our matches. He's a full-grown gorilla, and I'm just an ordinary woman. I may be taller than him, general, but Kong is definitely stronger."

"But then..." Glenn asked, looking more worried by the moment, "I mean, isn't it dangerous in there for you? I mean, to be in there with..."

However, Nancy just chuckled at that point, sounding almost like a little girl again as she replied to his question.

"General, don't worry about me. Like I said, I'm friends with Kong. He won't hurt me. You just have to know how to talk to him. He's really very protective of me. The only reason Kong ever hurt anybody in the past was that they didn't know how to treat him right. I just have to be respectful of him, let him fight me now and then, act gracious when he wins, and not stomp on his ego too much. That's all he really wants, and it's enough to make us friends, I guess. In fact, he's been taking my advice almost all the time lately. I think he trusts me, and knows I want what's best for him. He also likes the plants, though I bet he'll be upset when he wakes up. He's usually not too crazy about dark places."

Danesbury smiled just a little bit at that point, but didn't try to interrupt. He'd had no idea that Kong was located at Granger Base, but it made things much easier. After all, with some luck, he could acquire the help of two titans, instead of just one. Still, General Glenn looked more nervous than ever, and after a couple of moments, he made it perfectly clear why.

"Colonel, I'm more worried about you than him. You still haven't told me anything about what kind of missions you were sent on, or how you carried those missions out. I mean, you're not exactly inconspicuous..."

"I don't need to be." Nancy just replied, however, "Nobody knows I'm affiliated with the military, so no matter where I go, or what I destroy, they can't trace it back here. It was an arrangement that my previous commanders got some pretty big benefits out of. Still, I've always done my best to keep from causing damage unless I absolutely had to."

It seemed like Glenn had been about to start shouting again, but when Nancy had made that last remark, he backed down, seemingly satisfied, for the moment.

"Well, I'm not like your previous commanders. I'll do what I can to protect you, and I won't give you away, but I refuse to use you like some kind of hitman. In fact, I'd like to spend as little time with you as possible. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Nancy replied, her look of sadness returning at that point, "In that case, there's one more thing I need to ask. Do you know when the power's going to be back on? My plants will probably start dying if they don't get light soon, and like I said, Kong..."

"Colonel, we don't even know what's caused this blackout, and we can't just turn on a switch somewhere. All the power on the planet's just stopped." General Glenn explained kurtly.

However, just then, Nancy's fears seemed to be growing more and more visible, and she said the very thing that Danesbury had been hoping to hear.

"General, I'm sorry to speak out like this, but this is obviously a huge emergency, and I really deserve the chance to help out. If there's anything I can do..."

"What?" Glenn just asked, looking a little sarcastic, "What can you do, Colonel? You're a half mile underground."

"If I want to, I can leave anytime." Nancy just replied confidently, however, "I really only stay here because I want to."

Glenn looked absolutely flabbergasted when Nancy said that, but Danesbury was done being patient with the man. Quickly stepping forward, he spoke to the general again, and his words were very assertive; almost commanding.

"Introduce me."

Under other circumstances, it was clear that Glenn wouldn't have listened to Danesbury at all, but he was still so shocked from what he'd been going through, that his once-strong will had been diminished, and after only a moment, he muttered "Nancy, this is Lord Danesbury, from the UK."

"Nice to meet you." Nancy said with a smile, turning to look at Danesbury pleasantly. Maybe, he thought, she just couldn't see him very well, or maybe she just didn't feel intimidated because of how much bigger she was. It was a little odd talking to a woman on those terms, but, Danesbury decided, he could work with it if he had to.

"I came all this way to request your help specifically, Colonel Archer." Danesbury explained, "I believe I've determined who is responsible for this current disaster, and if you'd like, I'll brief you personally. I've been attempting to gather powerful veterans, to oppose this threat, and your unique traits would be most useful in helping me to locate others, who might assist us. I admit, I have only two or three other ideas at the moment, but..."

However, as soon as Danesbury said that, Nancy's expression darkened quite a bit, and he had a sinking feeling that he might have made a mistake. However, her next words sounded surprisingly civil, even if they were a bit dangerous to him.

"In other words, you'd rather not discuss it with General Glenn standing right next to you."

For a moment, Danesbury just looked at Nancy in awe. She'd read him like a book; a rare talent indeed, and yet, if all went well, the two would be working together very soon. He wasn't sure whether to feel scared, or angry, or simply disappointed by her lack of tact, but Danesbury was convinced that he didn't want to offend Nancy Archer. After taking less than half a second to think it over, he finally just started laughing, and by that point, neither Glenn nor Nancy looked the least bit happy. That was only natural, of course. Glenn may have been very experienced, but he was still only one man, and as big as Nancy was, she'd been playing house-wife for an alpha-male gorilla for almost a decade. Danesbury knew, just then, that he had no reason to be the least bit scared. With just a little bit of work, things in that bunker would swiftly go his way.

* * *

In the end, Lord Danesbury had needed to make a compromise. He'd hoped to keep General Glenn somewhat in the dark about who was responsible for the global blackout, but Nancy had informed him, after a very short time, that she was obligated to tell her commanding officer everything that she personally found out about the extraterrestrial threat they were facing, and if they were going to be working together, the vampire knew that he couldn't hide the truth about Klaatu from her. There had been a short briefing for both of them on what Danesbury had deduced so far, and another few words regarding the other promising "veterans," who Danesbury had in mind. He claimed to have "agents" all aross Europe, Asia and the Americas, and said that in the last few hours, two sources of strong, usable energy had been located, which seemed to have remained active, in spite of the mysterious attack that had blanketed the whole world.

"I believe that both of these energy sources belong to individuals who we'll want working with us," Danesbury explained at last, "but that's not all. There's also a mister Barry Hammerson, who I would like to locate; a college football star, so he shouldn't be too hard to track down, and then I'd like to make a trip towards northeastern Africa, in the Cairo area, and one more stop in Tokyo. That should cover just about everyone I had in mind. There was one other, who I originally considered for the team, but he hasn't been seen in decades, and must be long dead by now."

"I wish you'd tell me a little more about who you'll have me working with." Nancy admitted firmly, but Danesbury was smiling when he replied.

"It would be a waste of time. We'll have all of them in one place withing forty-eight hours anyway, and if we fail to recover any of them, for any reason, then there would be no point in worrying about them to begin with."

"Worrying?" General Glenn asked, looking less and less as if he liked the idea, "Are you saying we should worry about these people."

"Yes, general." Danesbury just replied, however, "We'll have some of the greatest fiends in recent memory on our side. I would say that is worth worrying about. If any of these people chooses to betray us, it could be a horrible disaster for the whole human race; especially now that our most advanced technology no longer exists. However, there is no other way. If we don't muster all the force we can, and quickly, we'll have no defense against these attackers."

The general looked just as sick as ever, but he didn't seem to have any better ideas, and Danesbury actually found his quickly-changing emotions amusing. After all, just recently, he'd been terrified of Nancy Archer, but suddenly, he wanted nothing more than some clear, electronic means of keeping in contact with her. After all the years she'd spent under military employ, she seemed like the most trustworthy person at that briefing. There was little trace left of the wasteful, heavy-drinking, spoiled girl she'd once been, though she still looked just as young and beautiful as she had back then; most likely a biproduct of her transformation, just as it apparently was with Kong. Both seemed to have unnatural lifespans, in addition to their tremendous size, although how they'd managed to acquire such gift, or just how long it would take them to show signs of aging were anyone's guess.

Danesbury had noticed all of that too, although it only made him feel more confident in his recent decisions. Observing all the incredible gifts that those strange "monsters" had somehow gained, while under the watchful eyes of the military, he felt certain that he'd made the right decision.

* * *

Kelly Cartwright wasn't sure what to think. She felt like she wanted to scream, and yet, she wasn't sure it would do any good. The young man standing in front of her, pacing nervously back and forth, like some kind of tiger, trying to guard its territory, looked like he wouldn't have reacted well to screaming, and the worst part was that Kelly had once thought she'd understood him.

Kelly had been friends with Barry Hammerson since he'd been old enough to be friends with a girl. Still, they'd talked during the tail end of middle school, and really gotten to know each other through high school and college. Barry had been a sort of shy boy with a love for computers and science fiction, but he'd also loved animals; especially dogs, and they tended to like him back. He'd eventually gotten a job at a pet shop, and that was the sort of thing that he and Kelly had mostly talked about when they'd been together. Barry's interest in animal care had mirrored Kelly's own, and his humility and lack of forcefulness had made him an easy sort of person to confide in, like the big brother she'd never had.

Cartwright wasn't sure how or why Barry had changed so much, but she could pinpoint when it had started. One month from the end of his junior year in high school, he'd gotten really sick; even worse than he had been in the past; some kind of disease he'd apparently caught from an animal or something. He'd always been pretty sickly before then, but that time, it had looked as if he was at death's door, and he hadn't been able to get out of bed for over a week. However, after he recovered, it suddenly seemed as if his whole personality had just changed. Suddenly, he'd started wearing gloves, going in for sports, and being more and more careless with his words. To Kelly, it had seemed like he was growing less agreeable than most of the jocks she'd met at school, which was almost a complete reversal of his previous personality. It had strained their friendship to the breaking point and beyond. Still, what he'd done that night had been especially unreasonable.

Finally, Kelly decided that she had to at least try to talk to Hammerson, and hope that he'd listen to reason. She still felt pretty terrified, but it was the only opportunity she could really see of getting out of that mess in one piece.

"Barry?" Kelly asked, drawing the large, older boy's glance a moment later; a glance that was starting to look more and more distressingly like a glare, "What's wrong? Can't we talk about this? I mean, my parents are going to get worried if I don't get in contact with them soon, and..."

However, by that point, it looked like Barry was starting to scowl again; his long, bright red hair an absolute mess as he stopped pacing, and looked at her with a sort of perplexed expression. At last, however, he looked away, letting out a brief sigh in anger, and glancing out the nearest window once more. Finally, for the first time since they'd entered that building, he spoke up, sounding annoyed, but not really with her.

"What do you think is going to happen when you get out there? There's no power left in the world. There's gonna be riots, Kelly. You're better off here, with me."

"Why?" Kelly asked before she even had time to think the question over, but Barry only looked a little bit offended, and soon, he answered her question.

"I can protect you, Kelly. You don't ever have to be scared again. Nobody can hurt you as long as I'm here. I'm the strongest and the fastest. Nobody can beat me, so you'll be alright."

However, by that point, Kelly could see that Barry's choice had really been made more in emotional desperation than logical sense, so she decided to stop taking it easy on him, and just point out the truth.

"Barry, I'm sure somebody'll figure out what's going on eventually. Whatever you're trying to protect me from, you can't do it from in here. Just let me out, and we can go to the authorities or something. I mean, I'm not sure what caused this blackout, but it doesn't seem like it could be anything in this town, right?"

"No!" Barry nearly snarled back, however, terrifying Kelly again, "You're wrong! Something's right here; something horrible! I can smell it. It's like... It's like death... and ozone. Something's here. It's big, and it's headed this way. Something... Something like a monster."

As scared as she was, however, Kelly couldn't just let that comment slide without any kind of response.

"Where do you get off calling someone else a monster? Don't you have any idea how you've been acting for the last five years? Don't you even understand how you've been treating people? How can you just ignore what you did to Samantha and Leslie? Tim's still in the hospital, thanks to you. You're the biggest monster I know, Barry!"

Of course, Kelly certainly hadn't expected Barry to react well to those words, but his expression had grown darker and darker as she'd shouted at him, and at last, it seemed that he'd lost his temper completely, snapping at her in absolute rage.

"Shut up! Just shut up! You've got no idea what it's like! You don't know how I feel! You can't possibly understand! It's not like it was before, Kelly! You... You..."

For a few moments, Barry seemed to be struggling to regain control of his temper, but it was clearly a losing battle. It was so strange; not at all like the kind of person who Barry had been when he was younger. He'd never had any kind of noticable temper during his earlier high school days, and in fact, he'd always seemed so shy and retiring, that it had been hard to even imagine him getting really upset with someone, much less yelling at them. However, there he was, struggling just to stay in control of himself; virtually holding Kelly hostage in that old building, and looking as frantic as a trapped animal.

At last, however, when Barry spoke again, he seemed to have managed to calm himself down just a little, though he still looked very grave and nervous.

"Kelly, I'm sorry... I'm... I'm not myself... I mean, it's not... It's not how it used to be. I'm sorry. I wish... I wish I could let you go, just like that, but... I'm still scared. If you go out there, I don't know what might happen. I really do think there could be a monster out there, Kelly, and I'm worried that... I might never see you again."

"You can't keep me here by force, Barry." Kelly insisted at last, hoping to at least dispel that illusion, which Barry was apparently under, but unfortunately, that only seemed to have aggrivated his temper further.

"I can't? Who says I can't? Who do you think you are? If you think anyone or anything can get in here and take you from me by force, you've got no idea what you're talking about! You... You..."

However, once again, Barry's furious expression swiftly turned to one of terror, then sadness, then he started to retreat from her in shame, as he realized what he'd just said. Finally, though, in a voice that seemed full of that clear, obvious shame, Barry just remarked, "I'm sorry. You can't understand what it's like for me... You and all your friends kept telling me to just follow my feelings... Well, this is how I feel!"

With those final words, Barry yanked off one of his gloves; which he'd worn every day for the past five years, and there, on the palm of his hand, there was a mark, which looked like a tattoo to Kelly, though she'd never heard of anyone getting a tattoo on their hand, and certainly not one that was so horrible. It was a circle, with a five-pointed star, enclosed inside of it. Kelly didn't know much about the symbol, but it looked occult.

In only another second, Barry had swung his hand around in a wide arc, and a splitting noise echoed through the whole building, accompanied by a loud, vicious snarl on the part of that young man. Soon, splinters of wood were flying everywhere, and when Kelly looked again, her feelings of horror growing to new levels, she could see that four three-foot-long gashes had formed in the wall of the building, precisely where Barry's fingers had made contact with it; like razor-sharp claws, tearing right through the wood. At that point, Kelly couldn't help herself anymore. She screamed aloud, rushing for the door.

By that point, however, it seemed that Barry was already too far gone to react in a civilized way. The moment that Kelly went for the doorway out, he'd leapt across the length of the room, and was on top of her; lifting her bodily into the air with one hand. She could already feel the monstrous strength of his fingers tightening around her neck, and his uncommonly-long fingernails digging into her, but she was starting to run out of oxygen, and only had just enough breath left in her to let out one last exclamation; barely even strong enough to be heard.

"H-help...!"

Just then, in that final moment, before Kelly blacked out, the entire nearby wall just seemed to explode, and the last sight she saw that night was a huge figure; more than seven feet tall, lunging towards Barry angrily.


	3. Chapter 3: Mad Alliance

Chapter 3: Mad Alliance

* * *

Greg's heart was racing as he rushed through the woods, up the steep incline at the edge of town. He was absolutely terrified, but he just kept running. It had been a while since his lungs had had the force they needed to shout aloud, but he knew he couldn't afford to stop, or even slow down, because if he did, then that stupid Jill was just going to disappear.

As soon as the power had gone out, Jill's parents seemed to have panicked, getting into hurried arguments and trying to get in contact with their relatives. Greg's mother had reacted in pretty much the same way, and in all the chaos, the two children had had the chance to slip outside together, along with some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Greg didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was, he'd decided, it wouldn't be his job to fix it, so he might as well just play some games outside with the other kids, and not worry about it. He hadn't really wanted Jill to play with the rest of them, and at one point, had even told her straight-out that she couldn't play with them, but still, when the game had started, and everyone had run off in different directions, Jill had been running too; the youngest and smallest kid there; dashing in the absolute worst direction; uphill.

Everyone in the town of Hansfield, Montana knew to never, ever go uphill; even the adults. It wasn't that they were scared of heights; just one height in particular. The tallest point in town was also the most terrifying.

Standing on the town's biggest hill, overlooking the rest of the town from the northwest, there was a medium-sized mansion, though still much bigger than any other residential building in the whole town, and it was the only building in town that everyone was afraid to go to; even the police. Since the start of the blackout, a few people had managed to bring news back from other towns, and the power was out there as well. The problem was, the lights in that hilltop mansion were still on. The world seemed to be crashing down, and yet, Hansfield's resident urban legend was just as powerful and terrifying as ever.

Greg was furious with Jill for not understanding the danger she was putting herself in. He could still hear the sound of her feet, continuing on ahead of him; her hyperactive, youthful energy driving her further and further up that hill, while he was falling behind, but at last, the sounds of her footsteps in the autumn leaves stopped, and another sound replaced them; it was the sound of a terrified shriek. Greg felt his blood starting to turn to ice, but he kept on going up that hill, regardless. At last, when he was no more than a few feet from the hilltop, he heard another scream; sounding like it was coming from behind a closed window. However, by that point, it was too late to stop running. Soon, Greg had made it to the top of the hill, and there, he saw a sight that confirmed all of his worst fears.

There was the mansion; its black and gray paints all worn and faded, and its shingles in visible disrepair. Lights still came from inside that strange mansion; reddish and golden lights, like sparklers or flame, but with the consistency of electric lights, producing a strange contradiction. It was as if everything outside the mansion was ancient and ill-used, while everything inside was advanced and magnificently cared-for. Greg had never been that close to the mansion before. He'd never dared, and right between the mansion and himself, there was one obvious, visible reason why.

Some of the dirt surrounding the mansion had, it seemed, been pushed away in a circle, and in the middle of that circle of dirt, as if it had just risen up out of the ground itself, there was a machine that looked like it was made from glass and silver. It was tall, thin, and shaped like a test tube, turned upside-down, and inside of that transparent contraption, there was Jill, quietly crying into her hands.

Greg had never been so scared in his life, because he'd never been so close to the mansion before, and knew that its strange inhabitant was one of the most dangerous people in the world, but no matter what, he could never have lived with himself if he'd just left Jill there, in the clutches of that maniac.

Quickly grabbing the heaviest stick that he could find lying around, Greg rushed the thick tube, swinging the wood as hard as he could, and hoping that he could somehow get Jill out and get away before they were discovered. However, every time he struck the tube, he felt something within the wood starting to crack apart, and distressingly, not a single mark was forming on the tube itself. Still, Greg kept at it until the stick was in pieces on the ground. As worn-out as he was from the long, uphill sprint, though, he knew that he couldn't do much more than that. That was why despair started to fill his heart a moment later, when he heard a shrill, squeaky voice speaking to him from behind, and felt a warm, reddish glow covering him.

"Oh, I see. Trespassers."

Though he was sure it wouldn't do any good anymore, Greg grabbed as much of the remaining wood as he could, and spun around to face the source of the voice, but he was dismayed to find that it wasn't a person. In fact, it looked like a tiny, metal device; about the size of a baseball mitt, with a lens of some kind on the front, and speakers on each side. It wasn't making any moves, though; just sort of hovering in mid-air, as if it had absolutely nothing better to do than watch him, and Greg was sure that the owner of that mansion was on the other side of that strange, mobile camera, watching his every move. That was why he eventually decided to try to reason with her.

"E-excuse me!" Greg exclaimed into the camera, hoping that it could hear him, in addition to seeing him, and speaking, "Can... Can you let Jill out of this tube, please? She's still little. She doesn't know any better."

"Any better than what?" the squeaky voice from the other end asked, "I'm not upset. In fact, I'm delighted that someone has finally decided to pay me a visit. She has such a nice cranial development, too. Yours is fairly plain, and your genes are substandard, but I suspect I could learn a few things from a study of your assistant's brain."

Of course, Jill was crying even more openly by that point, though it still sounded muffled by the tube, but Greg was determined to do everything he could to get her out of that situation.

"Listen, you can do whatever you want to me; just let her go!" Greg exclaimed, in what he hoped was a heroic-sounding voice. In truth, of course, he was hoping that they might both have a chance to make a break for it, but the voice from the camera still sounded uninterested.

"You? What would I want with you? Your skull shape is typical, your cognitive potential is substandard, your body functions are unremarkable, and your genes are probably self-destructive. Like I said, she's the one I'm interested in. She might even have what it takes to learn my craft. Wouldn't that be a thrill; to learn the hidden truths of the art of cybernetics?"

Jill didn't look like she would have found that at all thrilling, however, so Greg tried to reason with the squeaky-voiced fiend one more time.

"You can't do this to Jill! She's a human being!"

At that point, however, the squeaky-voiced menace on the other end seemed to pause, almost as though she were thinking the objection over. However, when she did reply, she didn't sound as if she had any personal doubts.

"You're much too young to debate scientific ethics with me, kid. Maybe if you were about twenty years older, and had a degree or something..."

"I don't need a degree to know it's wrong to hurt people!"

The voice, however, didn't hesitate in replying to that at all.

"Ah, youth. You're still strong enough to recognize that you know the things you know, and yet, not brilliant enough to prove why. Hold onto that strength kid, and keep improving. Maybe one day... Well, it's not important. Anyways, if you wanted me to take an interest in you, you've succeeded."

Greg swallowed hard at that point, but he had a feeling that he was going to get his chance to escape very soon, and that he wouldn't have another one. Jill looked like she was starting to calm down as the transparent tube slide away, and in no time at all, the young girl was off like a shot, escaping wordlessly down the hill; fleeing into town. Greg felt like punching her for running off without him, but really, he wasn't sure what else he was supposed to do. He wanted to start running too, but wasn't sure if it would do any good, and he nearly jumped out of his skin, when he heard the high-pitched voice ask him another question.

"What? You're still here?"

"Well, I... uh... Didn't you say you were... I mean, you're interested in me, right?"

"Oh, that." the voice replied at last, "Don't worry about it. Like I said, when it comes to your body and brain, you're typical at best. I just needed data on your psychology and will, and I got that while we were talking. You may as well go home."

Greg could barely believe what he was hearing? Dobson was letting him go; just like that? No tricks? He wasn't sure how to react. For a moment, he wanted to thank her, but wasn't sure it would have been appropriate, or welcome. He also thought, for a brief fraction of a second, about trying to play some trick on her, or disable her machine, but that seemed unlikely to help matters either. In the end, Greg just found himself running, full-tilt down that hillside, away from Dobson's mansion home, hoping against hope that she wouldn't send some unnatural horror after him.

* * *

Stephanie Dobson watched the young boy flee down the slopes leading up to her home; chasing after his young friend; apparently Jill, and waited until both of them had emerged from the woods surrounding the bottom of her hill. Then, she turned off her camera again, leaned back in her chair, and started laughing merrily at what had just gone on there. It was true that no one had been hurt that day, and she really hadn't learned much, but at least those kids would think twice before trespassing again, and she had the looks on their faces recorded on film; which was one of the most precious things of all, in her mind.

Of course, as precious as those moments were, Dobson knew that she couldn't let herself get distracted from the business at hand. Soon, she'd turned back to face the middle-aged man who was lying on the table in front of her. He was definitely the most interesting person she'd met in a very long time, and she still had a few questions to ask him. Of course, he looked pretty ordinary at first; with his normal, plaid shirt and dark pants, but his hair, though still mostly brown, had started turning gray; most likely from worry. Of course, she wasn't studying his hair, which was why she'd taped several tiny machines to his scalp, grinning in delight as she observed his brain wave patterns. They were among the most unique she'd ever seen; abnormally low in some areas, and almost impossibly-high in others. It would probably give her weeks of work just to analyze all that data on him.

"Now, when did you start getting flashes of the future?" Stephanie asked, never taking her eyes off the monitor as she spoke to him, "What year?"

"Seventy-seven." the middle-aged man; whose name was Dan replied, "I was just a boy."

"And do you know what triggered it?"

"Yes." Dan replied immediately, "My father died in a... paranormal incident."

"I see. Did you ever have visions before that?"

"Well, sort of. Little blurbs, like warnings of danger, but nothing that ever turned out to be a prophecy, or anything like that."

"And it got worse after your father's death."

"Well, it... It got stronger, but worse? I mean, the visions have always been pretty terrifying, but they only got really bad these last few weeks, and everything I saw in them started happening all at once."

"The blackout."

"Yes, the blackout, but that's not all. I knew I'd have to come to you, and I know there's even worse things coming in the future. I can't remember all of it, but... It's like... monsters everywhere."

"Monsters? What kind of monsters?"

"Every kind, all at once. I've seen it happen, Doctor Dobson. First there's a blackout, then monsters start appearing, then light and shadows start spreading across whole cities, and... Something... something like a dragon. I've never had visions like these, doctor. They're so much more horrible than anything I've ever seen, but what's frustrating is that they're still not clear enough. I can't really tell you what's going to happen, except... except there's one thing I'm sure of. Monsters are going to gain power over the whole world soon. I... I can't say what else might happen. I'm sorry."

For several seconds, Stephanie Dobson just watched Dan with a firm, penetrating gaze from behind her thick goggles, but at last, she did something that truly made him give a start of alarm. She tilted her head back and began laughing again.

"Wait a minute!" Dan exclaimed, trying to get up from the table, but getting his hair tangled in the wires as he did so, "Why are you laughing at me! This is serious! I'm not making this up!"

However, that one fear of Daniel's was unfounded, and pretty soon, Stephanie cleared up his misconception.

"I know. That's why I'm so happy."

However, Daniel looked even more puzzled when she said that, so she continued to explain, though more to herself than to him.

"Do you have any idea just how long I've spent looking for even one of those precious monsters, and never quite managing to track one down? In all my years, your strong psychic powers are the closest I've ever come to locating a true monster. If you're right, and they're about to start popping up out of the woodwork, then this could be the chance I've been waiting for; for research and scientific learning! Heeheehee!"

"What? You mean you're not scared? What about...?"

"Scared? Why would I be scared? This is what I've been waiting for my whole life! You be scared if you want to; this is my chance to finally break the very laws I've spent so long mastering. Heeheehee!"

At that point, the young scientist brushed her pitch black hair to one side with a flourish, then turned on her heel and marched from the room, her chemical-stained lab coat sweeping the ground behind her. She caught sight of herself more than once in the silvery surfaces of the machines that filled her laboratory as she left the room, and had just a moment to marvel at the beautiful image she'd worked so hard to design; every single part of her body serving a useful function. Each strand of her hair had been coated with a powerful chemical, to keep it from building up friction when she worked with machines. Her ears had tiny metal devices implanted in them, to allow her to detect vibrations like a dolphin. Of course, the devices came across as mere earrings from the outside, but in reality, they filled almost her entire ear. Of course, the most noticable difference had been to her nose; giving herself the power to store and use oxygen while underwater. The shape of her nose had changed, thanks to that. In fact, it was almost the size of her thumb, but that was alright. It didn't bother her in the least. In fact, she thought that a nose like that even gave her a look of magnificence; like a hawk, descending on prey.

Of course, Stephanie wasn't very tall, so it would have been difficult for her to "descend" on anybody, but she had solutions for that as well, if the need arose. She'd devoted her whole life to improving herself through science, no matter how badly she had to warp her own nature in doing so. It was just one of the prices that one paid for being a mad scientist. No sane person, after all, would have tampered with their very dignity as a human being in the way that she had. Still, conventional sanity, it had turned out, was overrated.

Stephanie continued laughing to herself as she seized a small cross from a nearby table, and stepped through a large, metal doorway at the far end of the lab, enjoying the hissing sound it made as it closed and sealed itself behind her.

* * *

Dobson continued to walk further and further, through hallways and up stairs, until she arrived at one last doorway; a transparent window-doorway, which opened out onto a balcony. It was the highest point in her mansion, and the best vantage point, if she ever needed to watch for local dangers. Slowly, she opened the doorway and stepped out onto the balcony, feeling a primal chill travel up her spine as a gust of cold air whipped her lab coat around. However, she couldn't hear much of anything besides the wind, which was a bit frustrating, and somewhat distressing. Still, she knew that there were beings in the world with even better hearing than her own, in spite of the modifications she'd made to her own ears, so after a few moments of waiting for something to happen, she curled both hands around her mouth, and shouted as loud as she possibly could.

"Here I am! I'm the one with the power! You monsters had better come and get me while you can!"

After that, Stephanie Dobson just kept waiting for a while on that balcony. The sun had just recently set, and if there were any monsters out there, they'd most likely be at their strongest, she reasoned. She hadn't really been expecting to hear from any of them at that moment, of course. After all, she'd never heard of monsters responding to a direct challenge like that one before. Still, she thought, it had been worth a try.

Stephanie stepped back inside and closed the doorway behind her, then headed back down the hall, but just as she was nearing the door at the far end, which would have taken her back towards her lab, she heard a rattling noise from behind her, as if something had just shaken the doorway. Quickly, she turned, and there, she saw something that made her smile widen even more. A large, black bat was slapping its thick, leathery wings against the glass, staring in through that doorway, as if captivated by the sight of her.

Quickly, Stephanie rushed back towards the door, opening it again, and was pleased to see that the bat outside had backed away slightly, as if unable to enter through the open door. It proved a few important things to the mad doctor, and at last, when the large bat concealed itself in a shadowy corner of the roof, very nearby, she knew that she'd gotten the attention of a very powerful monster indeed.

"So, did you come to take me up on my offer?" Stephanie Dobson asked eagerly from inside the open doorway, but when, to her delight, she received a strong-voiced reply from the shadows, it wasn't at all what she'd expected.

"No. I came here because the people of this town had noticed that your lights were on. Because of that, I guessed that you must have some form of non-electrical power. That was why I noticed you. I heard your offer as well, but that was much more recently. However, I don't see what you hope to gain from it. Do you wish to be a victim? A vampire, perhaps? Do you think you are worthy to fight alongside me?"

"I have no intention of becoming a vampire." Dobson replied, still perfectly calm, "I'm sure it would get in the way of my research, and honestly, the only reason I want to join your ranks is to find out more about you monsters; to do some further research on those who've already defied the laws of science."

"Your science is too small to contain one like myself." the voice replied from the darkness, however, sounding truly derisive, "However, since you know how to circumvent the attack of these alien beings, I believe that you might be useful in thwarting them. For now, I would like your assistance in locating another power source, which should still be somewhere in America."

For a moment, Stephanie really thought about it, but she was just too curious to work with someone who was determined to keep her in the dark, so for the moment, she decided, she was going to at least try to weedle some more information out of him.

"The only reason that I still have power is that my machines can run on pure heat energy, as well as electricity." Stephanie explained curtly, her smile finally fading, "It's hard for me to imagine that there could be another power source that hasn't been disrupted."

"This power source would not be disrupted, because it isn't produced by a machine." the voice just replied, and that really told Stephanie Dobson all she needed to know.

It made some sense, of course. Electric eels hadn't lost their ability to deliver shocks since the alien attack; it was only the machines. Of course, no eel produced a shock strong enough to be detected by any of Dobson's devices, but there was one other being who did; one being who had such a powerful current running through him, that even with the power running all over the world, he would have been easy to find on her scanners. Still, Dobson was as curious as ever, and a moment later, she found herself asking yet another question.

"What do you want with the monster of Frankenstein?"

"What else?" the voice from the shadows replied without hesitation, "I want him to serve as a warrior in battle. His power is undeniable, and he may have grown stronger since the last time I met him. Besides, he might be the key to repairing some of the damage done by this alien assault."

Something about that reply didn't quite ring true to Dobson, but regardless, she turned on her heel, to return to her lab, leaving the door open without another word. A few minutes later, she returned with a small device in her hand, attached to a string of tiny pellets, which looked like metal blocks with twenty sides.

"This device will do what you want it to." Dobson said at last, feeling a bit unsatisfied as she held it out the door, "I use these pellets instead of batteries. They contain pure heat energy, and it works almost as well as electricity. Now, where should I meet with you again?"

In only a moment, the bat had reappeared, snatching the device from Dobson's hand, then flying back out of sight again, and for a moment, the doctor wondered if she was being left to her own devices. However, soon, she heard the strong voice again, speaking to her from almost directly overhead.

"You will meet with me in London, at this address."

Then, a tiny slip of paper descended towards Stephanie from above, being swept into her hand by a light gust of wind, and moments later, she heard the beating of wings again, and that was the last she saw of her strange visitor.

Doctor Dobson wasn't sure how well her future meetings with those monsters would go. In fact, she didn't even know whether she'd get the chance that she really wanted to study them. Still, it seemed as if she was finally on the right track, and after all, if she couldn't get what she wanted by working alongside them, then she never would.

Dobson started laughing to herself again as she headed back to her lab, already thinking about what kinds of preparations she needed to make for the future.

* * *

Brother Brieve was frowning as he closed the door to his room, and seated himself in the chair near the cell's far end, in front of the small table that he used for reading and writing. It was all as simple as could be, but then, that was the way he'd wanted it; everything simplified to its utmost; nothing made too complicated for him; nothing too fancy for his basic tastes. It was a life of sacrifice, and there was no doubt about that. He had to work hard every day, without ever enjoying the benefits of it, but it was the life he'd chosen.

For a few moments, Brieve thought about writing a letter while he was sitting there, but the truth was that his fingers were still aching from all the work he'd had that day, and it would probably be about an hour before they stopped. He had the strength to speak, but not enough to really write anything. It was a bit aggrivating, but then, that was life. No life could be completely without those kinds of little disappointments.

However, just as Brieve was about to put his pencil away, he heard a familiar voice, coming in through the window of his cell. The voice wasn't very loud. In fact, Brieve was fairly sure that only he could have heard it, but it was very, very deep.

"Brother Brieve, I need your advice."

Quickly, in spite of his aching arms and fingers, Brieve got to his feet and stepped over to the window, looking outside, and sure enough, no more than a yard from that window was his most unusual friend. He was definitely unique and distinctive; very different from every other person who Brieve knew. For one thing, he was over seven feet tall, and had a very unusual head shape. The top of his head was very flat, and he had small scars on various parts of his body. His mouth was very oddly-shaped too, and his neck looked pretty lumpy. Aside from that, he had a very powerful-looking muscle structure, and long arms and legs. Though he'd spent years learning to live in peace, Brother Brieve had to admit that every time he saw his friend, the first thought that popped into his head was that the big man would have been an absolute nightmare in a fight. Everything about his body looked like it had been designed for just that purpose.

"Adam?" Brieve asked, pressing closer to the window, to try to get a better view of the visitor, "What's wrong?"

"I'm concerned by something I did recently." Adam replied somberly, looking as if he was torturing himself inside, "I saw a boy attacking a girl, and... I intervened."

Brieve didn't hesitate to reply to that, however, recognizing the seriousness of the problem.

"Were they hurt?"

"The boy received a few internal injuries. The girl was just in shock. However... I'm concerned about the boy. I'm worried he might attack her again, and I don't believe the police in town will know how to deal with him when... if that happens."

Brieve just kept looking into Adam's eyes for a while, watching his friend's expression change, but it was obvious that whatever Adam had done, his conscience was as powerful as ever. At last, Brieve made his reply, though he was sure it wouldn't really calm his tall friend down very much.

"If you decide to stop him a second time, then I'll just have to trust you. I know you wouldn't attack someone unless you thought it was absolutely neccesary."

However, predictably, Adam looked more hurt than relieved by Brieve's words, because after a few moments, he remarked, "Don't you remember what I told you about my past? My hands aren't clean, brother. I'm a monster; a murderer, and I did it for revenge. How can I ever trust my own judgment again?"

"That's the reason why I trust you so much now." Brieve responded, however, "You were horrified by your sins. That makes you more human than the boy you attacked. You've done terrible things, Adam, but you always wanted to be a good man, and in spite of everything, you're still trying. In your situation, I don't know if I'd have the courage."

Adam still looked distressed, and wasn't quite acting as if his problems had been solved, but he also seemed a little bit relieved. Though he didn't like himself very much, the monstrous man named Adam was doing his best to trust Brieve, and that was a good start. It had been a long time since he'd made any attempt to trust anyone.

Brieve continued to talk with his friend for a short while after that, but nothing else that he had to say was quite as worrying. Adam liked to talk about philosophy, and the problems people were facing out in the world, but he didn't usually talk about his own problems. Still, whenever he did, Brieve was sure to pay special attention. Adam didn't generally need anyone's help, and when he did need help, it meant that something serious was going on.

* * *

Adam was starting to smile again as he dashed through the woods at a sprint, away from the monestary where Brother Brieve lived. The conversation had really cheered him up, but then, it was always pleasant talking to Brieve, because he was one of the few people who wouldn't have passed judgement on Adam, because of his strange appearance. Many types of prejudice existed. Some were based on age or sex, and those came in many varieties. Others were based on moral codes, and were frequently justified. However, by far the worst was the type of prejudice that was only based on appearance. Too many people were too eager to abuse others, simply because they didn't like the way they looked, and it was doubtful that anyone had experienced that quite as often or as painfully as Adam Frankenstein.

"Adam" was a name that the creature had given to himself not long after he'd first been created. At first, it had simply been intended as an ironic observation on the state he'd been living in; abandoned by his creator for no misdeed. It had been like a second fall from grace; like the biblical Adam, except without the justification of original sin to explain his abandonment. The moment that he'd heard the story, the creature had known that he could never think of himself by any name other than Adam.

Of course, a lot of things had happened since those days, and many things about him had changed. However, when all was said and done, he was still calling himself by that name; still thinking of himself as some kind of cosmic victim, and in a sense, he probably still was. However, the years had had their effect on him. His will was stronger than it had been in those old days, and he knew that he couldn't give in to despair and violence as he once had. He'd been convinced, at the time, that it would make him happy, but it had only brought him more pain, and with that, there'd come yet another set of troubles, even greater than the ones he'd suffered at the hands of human prejudice.

Adam sprinted for almost five miles before he found himself at the tent which he'd been using as his home for the last few months. His body was built to survive heat, cold, and all manner of terrible weather, of course, but for privacy's sake, a tent had seemed like a good idea, and it hadn't taken long to build and erect, once Adam understood the principle behind it. It gave him a place to return to whenever he wanted to store something that he'd gathered, or cook food, or do anything else that people used houses for. Everyone, really, had some desire for a strong and solid home, no matter how little use they could make of it.

Adam had originally planned to cook fish that night, while he waited for some further explanation of the global power crisis, but he hadn't been in the tent for more than five minutes, when he heard a sound that really surprised him; the sound of large, leathery wings, flapping madly from outside his tent. Adam had never known bats to travel through that section of the midwest, and anyway, there was no reason for them to be moving so close to noontime, or so near to the ground. Suddenly, just as the sun passed directly overhead, the sound of the bat wings ceased, and Adam heard two feet make contact with the dirt just outside his tent. It was precise noon, and the creature was completely convinced that he knew who his visitor was.

Quickly pulling back the flap that covered the opening to his tent, Adam stepped outside, and sure enough, there was a familiar face waiting for him; it was none other than the vampire lord himself, and he was smiling calmly as he advanced towards Adam's position.

"It's good to see you again, my friend." the well-dressed vampire lied through his teeth, "I'm afraid we're all in danger right now, however, and I need your help. Will you help me, friend?"

However, Adam felt a bit gratified by the look of shock on the vampire's face, when he asked, "What kind of help do you want?"


	4. Chapter 4: Destined for Greatness

Chapter 4: Destined for Greatness

* * *

For a while, Adam was pleased by the look on the vampire's face, just because he was clearly so disoriented and confused. It made sense that he'd be surprised, of course. Although they'd met before, the vampire had never heard Adam talk in more than two or three-word sentences. Most likely, he'd assumed that Adam was a brainless brute, and there had once been some truth to that assumption. Still, he was going to have to deal with Adam as he was; experienced, wisened, and with a much stronger will than before.

A few seconds passed in silence after that, then another few seconds, in which the vampire looked as if he was preparing some kind of attack, but at last, he started to relax again, and asked another question, though Adam didn't lower his guard for a second.

"Why reveal this to me now?"

Adam knew what the vampire meant by that question. In all the times the two had met in the past, Adam had never shown him even the slightest hint of higher intelligence, and to the vampire, it must have seemed as if he'd just been hiding his true cunning for all that time. However, the truth was a bit more complicated than that.

"I've never been dishonest with you before, and I don't mean to start." Adam Frankenstein replied somberly, finally lowering his guard just a little bit, "I was always a clever man; too clever, in some ways. Still, all the cleverness in the world won't wipe away the stain of guilt. There was a time when I thought that the solution to my guilt and pain was to block out my cleverness; to reduce my mind to a mere shell, with almost no higher functions at all. That was when you knew me. I've only rediscovered myself recently, thanks to the efforts of a very kind and honest man."

"I see." the vampire replied, looking very rigid and uncomfortable as he watched Adam carefully, "In that case, you must be more powerful than ever. I can already see that with your intelligence, your speed and reflexes have also improved; perhaps even to match mine."

"Perhaps." Adam replied warily. He wanted to show the vampire a bit of courtesy, but he still didn't trust him, "Do you still need my help?"

However, as worried as he still looked, it seemed that the vampire's mind hadn't changed. He still looked resolute, though he must have been rushing through a number of plans in his mind, at that point.

"Yes." the vampire explained, "In fact, I need your help more than ever, now that I see how much stronger you've become. I believe that I know who is responsible for this disaster, and stopping him will involve a very grave and dangerous risk; even for us. However, if we cannot stop him, the entire world will perish in flames."

Adam was still thinking about what the vampire had said, but there was still one thing that bothered him.

"You must have found others to help you already."

"Several others," the vampire agreed, "but your help is needed too."

However, by that point, Adam was starting to catch a glimpse of the vampire's real plan. It was chilling, but there was something in those blood-red eyes; something that was just as evil and avaricious as always.

"Alright." Adam said at last, "I'll help you, but only under one condition. I want to work closely alongside the others you've managed to recruit. There are some things I'd like to discuss with them."

"Why?" the vampire asked, but that question just confirmed everything that Adam had already guessed about his real motives. There was still open suspicion in the vampire lord's eyes, and it was most likely for good reason. Still, Adam gave the best answer to the question that he could.

"I've been an outcast for my whole life; a pariah of the human race. Now I want to work closely with others, and you ask me why?"

The vampire was still frowning, however. He didn't seem to have bought that explanation, but he didn't really have any choice but to accept Adam's conditions. If he wanted the help of Frankenstein's creation, he had to agree to his terms.

* * *

Adam soon found himself sprinting like mad, traveling across hills, mountains and plains on his way to the agreed-upon meeting place, and managed to make it there within three hours, but he was amazed at the sight that was waiting for him.

A twenty-five foot gorilla was located in the middle of that open plain, looking very bored, but fairly docile, and beside him, there was a woman who was even bigger. The vampire stood near them both, looking very proud of himself, but Adam recognized both of those enormous beings, and he felt more surprised than afraid.

Once he was within a dozen yards of the gigantic figures, Adam started slowing down, looking up at them in concern. He was definitely impressed that the vampire had managed to find such powerful fighters, and convince them to follow him, but there was still something that didn't sit right with Adam.

"Wow!" the fifty-foot giantess exclaimed in amazement, bending down low to the ground, until her face was almost on level with Adam's, "You got Frankenstein? I mean, the real Frankenstein? He looks a lot smarter than he used to, though."

"A lot of things have happened to me over the last few decades." Adam explained to the giantess with a calm smile, drawing a look of slight surprise from her as well, "I'm a different sort of man than I was."

To Adam's surprise, though, the brown-haired giantess didn't look disgusted by the sight of him. In fact, she looked impressed, as if to her, he was just some kind of celebrity. For a moment, Adam wanted to say something to her about that, but he wasn't sure what, exactly, to say.

"There's at least one other who'll be joining us once we reach London, and I've been searching for another near here, by the name of Barry Hammerson." the vampire continued, "However, once we've gathered everyone we need from the Americas, we can move back towards Europe."

However, at that point, the giantess straightened up and turned to face the vampire again, and there was a look on her face that distressed Adam more than a little, because she didn't look the least bit nervous when she talked to him.

"Danesbury, I've been meaning to ask how you located all of us. I mean, we do kind of stand out, but..."

That, however, had told Adam everything he needed to hear. He could already see what the vampire had been doing up to that point, and he was determined to burst his bubble as quickly as possible.

"His name's not Danesbury." Adam said aloud, drawing the attention of both the vampire and the giantess at once, "It's Dracula."

The vampire hissed in outrage for a moment, but the damage had been done. The brown-haired woman was already starting to look frustrated, and her gaze was slowly turning towards the man she'd been following until recently; the one she'd been hoping she could trust as a commander; the man who she was just starting to realize the truth about.

"Dra... Dracula?" the fifty-foot woman asked in amazement, looking, for a moment, at Adam, then back at the vampire again with a quick, sudden motion of her head, "But... But I saw his credentials; his ID! He's part of the British parliament!"

At that point, however, Lord Dracula seemed to have realized that the game was up. Adam wasn't going to let him deceive the people they were going into battle with; not anymore.

"It's true." Dracula admitted ruefully, clearly very disappointed over having to tell his new teammates the truth, "I've been a member of parliament for some years now, and I may be so again. I find that it's given me quite a bit of access to some very corrupt and influential men. It's the place to find power. However, the identification you saw was a forgery; the card of an assumed name. There has never been any Lord Danesbury; only me, playing a role. However, I sometimes play roles for as many as sixty or seventy years at a time. I had intended to use the name of Danesbury for a while longer."

The woman still looked shocked as she rolled the idea over in her mind, but at last, after taking a few seconds to think it over, she seemed about ready to accept it. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing she'd ever heard in her life. However, she still didn't look satisfied, and it was perfectly clear why.

"Why would you lie to me, Dracula?" the woman asked, a stern expression forming on her face at once, "I mean, if we're going to be fighting together against the same enemy, why would you want to keep this from me? What do you think would have happened if I'd found this out in the middle of a battle? Don't you think I would have been distracted by it?"

Adam was watching the vampire lord closely too, by that point, but if Dracula was still worried about the woman's reaction, he wasn't showing any sign of it anymore. Still, Adam suspected that he'd just forced himself to stay calm in that situation, in the hopes that it would make it easier to resolve the issue. Inside, he reasoned, Dracula must have been boiling.

"I apologize, Miss Archer." Dracula said at last, "I honestly did not consider revealing the truth to you. You must understand that it has been many years since I have used the name of Dracula, and using it now would do very little harm or good. I have lied to others about my true name for so long, than it has virtually become second nature. In fact, I had begun to think of myself as Lord Danesbury, even in my own mind. I suppose you can't simply call me that now, but it makes no difference anymore. Even if I walked down the street, introducing myself to everyone as Lord Dracula, I don't think anyone would bat an eye at this day in age."

"In other words, you lie to everyone, so you didn't think it was a big deal." Miss Archer summed up.

To that, of course, the vampire offered no real reply, and before long, the giantess just turned around to face Adam again, not eager to say anything else to the man who'd brought them together, for the moment.

"I forgot to tell you my name." the giantess said, leaning down again, towards where Adam was standing, though she still wasn't smiling, "It's Colonel Nancy Archer."

"Just call me Adam."

"That's a nice name. I'm sure you've already heard of Kong. He was in all the newspapers a while back."

"Yes," Adam admitted, "though we never met in person."

At that point, however, Adam felt that he had to hesitate, because there were too many things about that situation to consider. He didn't wish to offend Miss Archer, but he also didn't want to make her feel alienated. The truth was that he had barely spared King Kong a single glance since he'd neared them. It was mutual, of course. Kong didn't seem too interested in Adam either, but he wasn't sure whether he should admit the truth to her; that she grabbed his attention more than a twenty-five foot ape, or whether that would seem insulting. Furthermore, he didn't want to risk looking weak and selfish, like a human. No, he decided eventually. It would be better to just not mention it at all.

However, as Adam looked at that group, he was starting to wonder just what he could bring to it. They already had quite a bit of power at their disposal, and they were likely to obtain more. Deep down, Adam knew that they were the best chance the planet Earth had to defend itself from the invasion force that had already begun its attack, and yet, he hesitated to join them. It wasn't just the way Dracula had been lying to them. That bothered Adam, but he still would have joined them. He was pretty eager for companionship, but he just didn't feel right working alongside them. It was almost as if he felt that really, he didn't belong there at all.

Of course, that might have just been a simple feeling, but it was bothering Adam, and he knew that he couldn't really talk to Dracula or Archer about it.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go somewhere." Adam finally said, looking straight up into Dracula's face again, though he was met, as expected, by a scowl there, "I'll return in a few hours, and we can discuss everything else then."

"You're not going to join us, are you?" Dracula asked derisively, however, "After everything you've just said, you won't even stay, to see this through."

However, Adam wasn't going to be roped in by that kind of tactic, and his will was too strong to be controlled by the vampire. At last, he replied, "You may have kept yourself from all substantial human contact, but I haven't. I can't just drop everything; not even considering how little time we have."

Dracula was still scowling, but he also seemed to realize that he couldn't force the issue, and of course, there were other things to consider as well.

"It isn't as though I have nothing to do in the meantime." the vampire lord admitted after only a couple moments of silence, "Still, I should like to know for certain whether we can count on you. Come back to tell me within seven hours, or else, I'll assume you've abandoned us, and make my decisions accordingly. I can't wait any longer than that."

Up to that point, Adam had been intentionally trying to remain unaffected by the vampire's words. He'd been keeping up a passive expression, in spite of everything that the British lord had said, and yet, those words; "abandoned us" drew a very strong feeling from within the heart of Frankenstein's monster. He, more than most, knew what it meant to be abandoned by someone most important to him; indeed, by his very creator; his father. Virtually all of the troubles that he'd suffered over the course of so many decades had stemmed directly from that abandonment; that refusal to teach or cooperate with the living being whom he'd created. To avoid his responsibility to his child, Victor Frankenstein had gone to extreme measures to escape from Adam, and yet...

And yet, Adam was going to take responsibility for his own decisions. As bad as the vampire's words made him feel, they were, he knew, just words. The decision of what to do next was still his, and it was a decision that he'd already made.

* * *

Brother Brieve's life hadn't really changed much when the power had gone out all over the world. The refridgerator had stopped working, and they'd needed to cook more meals over a fire, but everyone was in the same boat, so even those who didn't want to accept that kind of sacrifice must have realized that they had no choice. As for him, it had been difficult, but then, no sacrifice ever earned merit by being easy. Faith made it gratifying, as with most sacrifices.

That night, Brother Brieve was being picked on a bit by some of the other monks. They'd insisted that he be the one to cook the food, claiming that over half of them didn't even know how to use a fire for cooking. It was a big job, but, Brother Brieve decided, if he did his best, and didn't complain, he would be rewarded for his effort.

Brieve had set up the fire pit a good six yards from the monastery, and arranged the wood and kindling in it, then lit it up. Soon, he had a decent blaze going, under the metal structure that would hold the meat. He was just applying some sausages to the grate, when he heard his friend's voice again, coming from the woods just west of the fire, and quickly turned to face him, though, he discovered, Adam was still hidden by the shadows.

"Brieve..." Adam said, apparently starting to cheer up a bit as he stepped out from the darkness and towards the fire, "Can I help?"

After everything that Brieve had already done that evening to prepare the fire, there wasn't much else to do, but still, Brieve knew that it was what his friend wanted, so he eventually nodded.

"I could use a few more small branches for kindling, and if you don't mind, could you bring me the can I left over by the monastery?" Brieve asked, drawing a pleased nod from his tall friend. In only a few seconds, the work was done, and Adam was standing over Brieve with the can of pineapple slices in one hand, and a bundle of kindling other the opposite arm. Soon, he'd seated himself by the fire, alongside the middle-aged monk, looking much cheerier than he had earlier in the day, though still very worried about something. However, before Adam could even say another word about his problems, Brieve correctly guessed some of what had happened.

"You've already got news about what caused the blackout." Brieve observed, drawing another nod from the creature, and wiping the smile from his face.

"I was approached by someone I used to know today..." Adam admitted at last, not really wanting to keep secrets from his friend, but not sure it would help Brieve to find out any more about Dracula than he absolutely needed to know, "He told me that he knew who was behind the blackout, and that the whole world could end soon, if we don't do something. Still, I don't feel I should be fighting on that level; with all those monsters. I've been living in the wild out here for too long, I guess. Living off the land does things to you. I wouldn't want to live in a city, and somehow, I just feel like my friend and his army are too much for me; like it's not my place to help or hurt them. It's as if I truly don't belong with them. I think I'd almost be better off as a monk, like you; giving everything up and living a simple life. I mean, you had your chance for success, and gave it up. There can't be anything wrong with that, can there?"

Brieve had listened to his friend carefully that whole time, but at last, when he'd asked that question, the middle-aged monk knew that he couldn't let it go unanswered. After taking a moment to turn over the first batch of sausages, Brieve looked into the fire for a couple of seconds in silent thought, before he replied.

"How good is your memory of the things you read, Adam?"

"Very good. I can remember every word I've ever read."

"Have you ever read the bible? All the books in it?"

"Yes; all the way through."

"Then you must know that there are things which we get to choose between; different lifestyles that we can accept or reject; whether we get married, whether we have children, whether we get a job in a certain town, or the place we decide to live. Whether we choose a life of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom, or whether we insist on pursuing our own path, even when it conflicts with God's will. These are all choices that people have to make. Some can be made wrongly; others are just a matter of doing the best you can with what you've been given; acting with as much wisdom and prudence as possible."

Adam was paying very close attention to Brieve at that point, the firelight dancing in his eyes as he continued to stare at the monk. Still, what Brieve had to say next might not be so easy for the larger man to accept.

"However," Brieve continued somberly, "although we have many choices, there are choices that we don't get to make; whether to be born, whether to be black or white, male or female. We don't get to decide how old we want to be. That comes on its own. In many cases; too many, in fact, we don't even get to decide whether to be rich or poor, sick or healthy, injured or athletic... Some things aren't part of our freedom to choose, Adam. Some things are part of our destiny."

"You can't seriously tell me that I'm destined to join them if I really don't want to." Adam replied, but Brieve shook his head at that point.

"I never said that, but I know one thing, and that is that you're different from me, and from everyone else I've ever met. One way or another, Adam, you'll have a great destiny. Your soul may be as human as mine, but I'm sure that no matter how hard you try to be simple and meek, you're still going to be great. Some people are destined for greatness, whether they like it or not. They can have great triumphs, or world-renowned conquests, or build whole empires with their successes, or they can choose failure instead, and cause horrible disasters by refusing not to help, like Achillies in his tent. Still, their failures are as great as their successes. You're not an ordinary man, Adam, and you can't pretend to be one. I truly believe that you are destined for greatness, and if you ignore that destiny, then your failures could destroy us all."

That was basically all that Brieve had to say on the subject, but it seemed that it had certainly been enough, because in only a moment, he could see that Adam was feeling very distressed, his forehead surrounded by one tremendous hand.

"All the time I spent learning to cope with my brutal, wicked feelings," Adam muttered at last, looking into the fire for several seconds, "and now I find myself going into deadly conflict again. I don't feel as if I should be part of a war at all, brother. What would you do, in my place?"

However, Brieve's brow had started to furrow in frustration when he'd heard that question. He had to answer it, but he didn't feel right about it at all.

"I won't tell you what to do, Adam." Brieve said at last, "The responsibility for this decision belongs to you. Still, in your place, or in any place, my choice would be the same; I'd look for the source of the evil that caused this disaster, then strike out against it with the light of truth. There's no other way to end conflicts, than with honesty and goodwill."

Adam didn't seem to feel any better after that discussion, but regardless, he got to his feet, walking over towards the woods again, and before long, without a single word of thanks or reply, the creature was gone, and Brieve's responsibilities had shrunk once again, to the size of a small fire pit with sausages over it.

* * *

Adam had been running for quite a while, and he wasn't sure when he'd be able to stop. Still, Brieve's advice had given him a lot to think about, and probably influenced him more than he really wanted to admit. In the end, though, Adam still couldn't make his decision without talking to one other person about it.

As he ran for miles and miles, Adam paused now and then to pick up some food; a few apples, some corn and a fish. He didn't have time to cook anything, or even a place to cook it, but for the moment, he decided, it would have to do.

Adam continued running with the food in his hands, until he reached his destination; an old cave in the wilderness, which went down quite some distance into the rock. It was also fairly big; the ceiling more than eight feet high, so Adam didn't even need to bend down as he stepped inside that stoney cavern, and began his descent into it.

Adam continued into that underground tunnel, traveling down further and further, until finally, he reached the familiar boulder, blocking a passage in the cave. Quickly, Adam seized the boulder with both hands, and pulled it away, revealing the section of the tunnel that it had been blocking off; a large, open cavern of about six yards long; large enough, Adam had decided, for a person to live in for a while. He quickly stepped past the boulder, leaving the passage unblocked as he entered, to let more air in, and was pleased to see that the chamber's inhabitant was still breathing. However, he was also still scowling, as if he hadn't learned a thing from the experience. It was the young man, who Adam had recently seized, preventing him from harming that girl not long ago. In truth, however, the creation of Frankenstein was having a hard time caring for that boy, since he knew almost nothing about him.

The boy was an odd sight. He had bright red hair, which was fairly long and shaggy, and a nose that looked almost rat-like. There was a strange marking on his palm, which Adam hadn't looked at too closely, and his teeth and nails were long and sharp, but regardless, the boy still looked almost normal to the naked eye. A bit wild and callous when it came to his appearance, perhaps, but certainly not supernatural.

Still, Adam knew that something about the boy was truly strange. For one thing, during their brief fight the night before, Adam had been surprised by the young man's strength. He hadn't been a match for him, of course, but he had seemed a lot stronger than any other human who Adam had ever wrestled with; almost as if he were half-monster himself. Then there were the gashes he kept making with his fingernails. Adam couldn't explain that either. There were cuts in nearly every wall of that cavern, despite the fact that it was made of solid stone. All of the gashes looked very similar, though; four in a row, as if made by fingernails, or the claws of some ferocious beast. Still, if that boy was truly strong enough to put claw-marks in the walls of a deep cavern like that one, then his attack on that young woman may not have been entirely his fault. Adam still had no intention of letting the boy out of that cave unsupervised, but he was, he decided, ready to learn more about him.

The room itself contained very little furniture; just one table with two wooden stools, a ornately-carved bed, and an armchair and bookcase, which contained many classics of literature. Virtually everything in that room had been made with Adam's own two hands, including the books, which he'd transcribed from memory over the course of about a month. He'd originally intended to use that cave as a sort of safehouse, in case he were ever hunted by the local population again. The young man with the long nails didn't seem to appreciate it nearly as much.

Still, Adam slowly seated himself at the wooden table in the room's center, putting the food down gently in the middle. The boy seemed a little warey at first, but eventually, he started to approach the table as well, looking very hungry. After all, he'd been in that cave for almost twelve hours straight, without anything to eat or drink, and from the looks of him, he'd avoided eating before that too, for a while.

However, in spite of his obvious hunger, the boy's reaction to the food was mixed. He didn't even seem to notice the apple or the corn, and just grabbed the fish, sinking his teeth into it at once, without even asking whether it had been cooked. He looked satisfied by the taste, though, and starting peeling off the scales, and pulling the bones out, digging into what little meat was on the small creature. Soon, he'd finished the whole thing, and yet, there was something in Adam that stirred when he saw that; some old memory of meat-eaters with shaggy hair, and a being he'd once encountered, with powers similar to the ones that man seemed to possess. Still, Adam knew that he needed to know more, so once the boy had finished the fish, leaving the corn and apple alone, the monster of Frankenstein asked him a question.

"What's your name?"

The boy still didn't look like he was really ready to trust Adam, because he just continued scowling at him at first, but to Adam, that just meant that he needed to reason with him a little bit.

"You must be angry at me for leaving you here alone, and for bringing you here to begin with." Adam concluded aloud, "I suppose I can't blame you for that, but I can't leave you here anymore. I may be going somewhere soon, and I won't be able to take care of you for the next few days; maybe longer. I need to be able to trust you."

However, the boy merely cursed at Adam in response, still looking very angry and bitter, so clearly, Adam decided, he needed to start explaining things from his end.

"If I were really a ferocious monster, you'd already be dead." Adam said, starting to feel a bit angry himself, "It's not as if you're innocent in all this, you know. When I attacked you, you were about to rip out your own girlfriend's throat. You should be thanking me for stopping you."

The boy still looked furious as he watched Adam carefully, apparently feeling very confused by that point, but at the very least, it didn't seem as if he was deaf to Adam's words anymore. Soon, his expression began to soften just a little, though he still looked absurdly tense, and finally, the young man opened his mouth, and said something that Adam found very surprising, though it was certainly a welcome reply.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Adam responded with a broadening smile, but as soon as Adam's smile started growing, the boy's scowl returned; almost as if with that one happy expression, he'd managed to undo every piece of progress he'd made up to that point with the young man. Sure enough, that was confirmed just a moment later, when the boy spoke to him again, sounding very hostile towards him.

"Why do you want to know about me? Why not just let me go?"

"Because I'm worried about you, and about the girl you nearly killed." Adam responded quickly, "I used to have all manner of problems controlling my temper, and you seem to be in the same kind of predicament. If there's some way that I can help..."

The boy still looked suspicious, but no longer seemed, at least, to be on the verge of attacking, so after spending a few seconds in silence, he made his reply.

"I don't see why I should trust you, but right now, I know I can't trust myself either. The truth is, I've had this problem for months. It's gotten really hard to control how I act, and that's not all. I got this strange tattoo, and I don't even remember getting it. On top of that, one night every month, I just kind of black out, and..."

However, by that point, Adam was almost entirely sure that he knew what was happening to that boy. All of the symptoms that he'd mentioned were a precise match for someone else, who Adam had known a long time ago; a man by the name of Talbot. Furthermore, Adam was piecing even more things together in his mind. If that boy, he reasoned, was really a monster himself, then it was possible that Dracula had heard of him too. In any case, it was worth making a guess as to his identity.

"Is your last name Hammerson?" Adam asked, starting to feel very nervous, but not nearly as nervous as the boy looked when he heard that question. Obviously, Adam had been right on target.

"How did you know that?" Hammerson asked, but Adam wasn't finished.

"You're Barry Hammerson, aren't you? You're in a lot of danger, my friend. Let me see your tattoo please."

Barry was obviously still nervous and confused, and was starting to fidget, like some kind of trapped animal, but nonetheless, he seemed to recognize the look of genuine concern on Adam Frankenstein's patchwork face, and held up his hand for Adam to see. The moment he saw the symbol engraved into Barry's palm, however, Adam sighed in dismay. He could already tell what had happened to Barry Hammerson, and just why Lord Dracula had been so eager to enlist his help. All that was left was to tell that unfortunate boy the truth about himself.

"I've seen this symbol before; on the palm of a man named Lawrence Talbot." Adam explained, "That was a long time ago, but I remember that it pertained to an old English legend, one which afflicted Talbot for many years."

"Legend?" Barry asked, suddenly looking terrified. Still, Adam had to let him know what was really going on, so after just a moment, he began to recite the old myth, in the verse format, in while he'd originally heard it.

"Even a man who is pure of heart,  
and says his prayers by night...  
may... become a wolf... when the wolfbane blooms,  
and the autumn moon is bright."


	5. Chapter 5: Lord Dracula's Base

Chapter 5: Lord Dracula's Base

* * *

It had been almost an hour since Adam had made it back to the open plain, where the other monsters had been waiting for him, and he'd spent most of that time sulking, because frankly, he hadn't been pleased by the way Barry had reacted when he'd learned the truth.

Barry Hammerson was a werewolf; and what's more, he'd recently reached full maturity; the time when werewolves were at their strongest; at least physically. The problem was that werewolves suffered terrible burdens when it came to the one power that was most important; the power to live a civilized life. Even when they were in human form, their strength, speed and aggression were vastly magnified above those of ordinary people, which made it extremely difficult for them to understand or sympathise with other human beings, most of whom only wanted to live their lives in peace.

However, Barry, at least, seemed to realize that there really was something wrong with him, because when Adam had revealed the truth to him; everything about how Dracula had found out about him, and was searching for him, as well as why, Barry had seemed very eager to meet the vampire lord, and leave his town behind. Still, when Adam had taken him aside and asked him why he was so eager, his face had fallen noticably, and he'd just replied that he didn't think he belonged there anymore.

It was a somewhat inhuman decision for the young man to make, but more importantly, it was dangerous. He could understand why Barry would want to leave that town, to keep from hurting the people who he still cared about, deep inside his heart, but somehow, Adam got the feeling that Barry was hoping his new companions would be able to keep him in check, the way Adam had, which wasn't a safe bet to make when it came to someone like Dracula. Relying on the vampire for emotional support, or worse yet, moral guidance was like putting Ghengis Khan in charge of the police force. Barry had grown to distrust his own judgment so much, that he was placing his trust completely in other people, and in the person who seemed most likely to abuse it. In spite of his affliction, Adam was starting to feel protective of Barry, and didn't want to see him get hurt any worse than he already was. On some level, he was hoping that the kid would end up like Talbot; searching with all his will for a true cure for his ailment.

Of course, that was part of the problem too. Barry, and indeed, most of the kids of his generation, had been virtually taught to avoid exercising strong will and just do whatever they felt like, which must have made the curse of the werewolf that much more of a torment for him. Try though he might, Adam couldn't really understand what that must have been like, and it was one of the factors that had recently been making him feel pretty depressed.

However, after a while, Adam noticed that the vampire lord seemed to have finished talking to Barry, and was looking as displeased as always, though it seemed to be just an act. Dracula must have been delighted to have found Hammerson so quickly, and that, after all, meant that they could move on to Europe again, provided they could find a steamship fast enough to take them there, and a way of reaching the east coast of the United States.

In terms of getting transportation back to Europe, however, Adam was pretty concerned already. He had the brainpower to chart out the fastest schedule to get them all there, but he didn't know much of anything about the revised schedules for ships, and much of the knowledge that he'd once possessed about airport schedules had become meaningless when the power had gone out. He was surprised that Dracula had even managed to reach America on such short notice. After all, he couldn't swim, or even fly across running water on his own. No vampire could. He must have needed to travel by ship too, which meant that...

That was a puzzle by itself, of course, but, Adam decided, he'd have a much better chance of solving it if he just discussed it with Lord Dracula first.

"I think that should be everyone you wanted stateside." Adam concluded, once Dracula had gotten within a few yards of him, though the vampire merely nodded in reply, so he continued, "You may need to pull some tricky magic to get us all back to London, though. I'm not sure how you got here so quickly yourself, with no planes working, but..."

"But you want me to use the same method to take us to all the other places we need to be." Dracula concluded, still frowning, but suddenly seeming just a bit amused, "Yes, I will. In spite of the way you exposed me today, I'll even show you how I did it, in fact."

Then, without another word, the vampire reached into the long, warm-looking coat that he was wearing, and removed something, holding it out in one hand. At first, it looked perfectly ordinary to Adam, but as he continued to look at it, he could see that there were things about it that he'd never seen before in anything else. It had only looked ordinary because it was small, metal and seemed to be made of discs connected together by hinges of some kind, but as he watched more carefully, the hinges seemed to also be connected in more than one direction, and small recesses were contained in each disc, through which more discs and hinges could be seen. It was like some kind of otherworldly vision; like nothing that Adam had ever seen before, and he was only starting to guess at what it meant, when the vampire closed his hand around it again, and for a moment, the mighty mind of Adam Frankenstein felt deprived, as if he were a baby, who'd had his bottle yanked away. Still, he shook the feeling off quickly enough, looking back up into the vampire's face in shock and amazement.

"Wh-what is that device?" Adam asked, very disturbed by the strange feelings that it had evoked in him, but the vampire really was smiling by that point, as if he'd won some sort of token victory over Adam.

"You wouldn't understand it. As brilliant as you may have become, Adam, it requires a different kind of mind than yours to grasp it; a mind untainted by connections to the ordinary world; like one who thinks in terms of the supernatural, or like a little child. Only by believing in things which seem impossible to others can a man learn to master this device, but its function is really quite simple. It connects two points of existence, which were previously not connected, then severs the link after about a minute and a half; plenty of time for a small army like ours to squeeze through. It's one of the amusing toys I've recently collected. You'd be surprised by just how much strange technology has appeared on this planet over the past few years alone. You just have to be willing to look for it. Most people, I'm delighted to say, are not willing, which has made this power mine alone to possess. It can take us to Europe, and anywhere else in the world within five minutes' time."

Adam wasn't sure what to say or do. He was still suffering somewhat from what he'd seen in that device. His glimpse of it had been so brief, and yet, it had proven to him, once and for all, that the world was a much bigger place than he'd once thought, and that even his mind, selected by Doctor Frankenstein for its brilliance, was not meant to grasp certain things. He didn't like the idea of leaving the management of that device up to Dracula at all, but, he realized in disappointment, he didn't have a choice. As Dracula had said, his mind was too grounded in natural, physical things to grasp its meaning just yet.

"In that case, when will we leave?" Adam asked, once he'd finally gotten his bearings back, though Dracula's frown, it seemed, had returned by that point.

"Very shortly, if you're prepared." the vampire replied, "I've talked to the others, and they all seem ready to proceed. I'd like to make a short stop in London, then move on to Cairo once we're all ready, however, I do have one final errand to make after that, and I would prefer to make it alone, to avoid endangering any of you. I'm not certain whether my other ideas will play out or not, and if not, you might all die at the hands of either of the other recruits I have in mind."

However, as Dracula had been talking, something had changed within Adam Frankenstein. For some reason, he just didn't feel scared anymore. He still wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do next, but at the very least, he wasn't afraid to do it, and he was starting to suspect that the answers he was looking for were just around the corner.

"I'm ready," Adam said at last, "but first, I want you to answer me one question. Where did you get that device?"

"Like I said, it's merely a toy I found." Dracula replied with barely a second glance towards the monster of Frankenstein, "It's not that old, compared to us, though I'm amazed by how well it's held up. It's one of many unusual things I've managed to collect over the years, from pawn shops, souvenir dealers, amateur adventurers, looking to make a quick dollar or two from their findings... It's not the only artifact I've located either, though I hope I won't need to use most of them."

Then, without another word, Dracula opened his hand again, and there, Adam saw, in utter amazement, that the device was starting to shine in a strange, flickering light, just like an open flame. Still, the sight of that machine was just as disorienting as before, so Adam had to look away for a moment, and when he did, the first things he saw were Nancy and Kong, standing nearby with Barry; all of them looking just as shocked by what was going on before their very eyes. As moments passed, the light around the tiny device continued to build and build, and finally, that light seemed to have grown as bright as the sun itself...

Then suddenly, it was completely gone.

Adam looked around for just a moment, still seeing spots from that strange light, but the vampire had already put the machine away, and it wasn't radiating light anymore. However, something much bigger had just happened; something even more amazing.

A moment before, the horizon had been dark, the plains, hills and sparse trees clearly outlined in the distance, but something about that flash of light seemed to have changed things. Where there'd once been darkened hills, Adam could suddenly see sunlight creeping across the outskirts of a city; a city which started at a specific spot on the horizon, and just spread out to either side. It was as if someone else's horizon had just been transplanted onto their own; it wasn't like anything that Adam had ever witnessed.

However, Frankenstein's monster didn't have a lot of time to admire the sight, because almost as soon as the horizon had changed, Dracula started moving towards the line of buildings, giving the others a meaningful glance, as if telling them to follow him. Barry started following Dracula at once, though it took Adam a few moments before he was sure it was safe, and Nancy, it seemed, needed to coax Kong a little bit. As big and as old as that gorilla was, he was still a wild animal, and he wasn't used to seeing such strange things, and was starting to look a bit unsettled. Still, it seemed as if he really trusted Nancy Archer a lot, and when she spoke to him in a soft tone of voice, he started to calm down, and followed her slowly. Soon, all five of them had passed the point where the buildings had appeared, and Adam wasn't sure what else to think. He noticed a large city in the distance, with several skyscrapers in it, and he recognized it from some pictures he'd seen as London, though it certainly wasn't the same as the last time he'd seen London. Many of the buildings were larger, and seemed to spread out further, in more directions. However, what really caught Adam's attention were the people in that area.

There really were quite a few people outside of their houses on the outskirts of London, and all of them were either staring right at Adam and the others, or else running in fear, as fast as they could go, in a large variety of directions. One or two even ran in the direction that Adam had come from; back towards the large, midwestern plain they'd just left. Very few dared to enter their homes, seemingly out of fear that Kong or Nancy might start knocking them down. Generally, however, those who ran moved towards the city, looking incredibly frantic. Adam wasn't really too surprised by that. After all, with the power out, news wasn't getting around very fast, and most televised news networks had been only marginally accurate at best, even when the power had been on. Really, Adam would have been much more surprised if everyone had remained calm, but at least no one made any attempt to attack them, as Dracula led them further towards the center of London, past houses, office buildings and workplaces; all dark and helpless. Though he'd never had much reason to like other human beings, Adam found himself feeling pretty sorry for those poor people, who'd lost so much, so quickly.

* * *

Adam Frankenstein sighed as he leaned back in his seat. He hadn't really been at Dracula's home in London for very long; no more than an hour and a half, but it had already started getting to him. The main rooms of Dracula's house were really very large. He lived in quite an impressive mansion, with a very big entry hall, a living room the size of a gymnasium, and a series of parlors, all of stupendous size, and decorated with beautiful artwork. The place was ostentatious in the extreme, and just large enough to accomodate Kong, and even Nancy if she ducked a lot. However, that, it had turned out, was only the beginning.

Soon, Dracula had led them to a huge section of wall in one of the parlors, which slid aside at his touch, revealing a large, metal room on the other side. What was really disconcerting was that Dracula held a large, heavy-looking torch in one hand as he led them through the various rooms of his house. It was the only way they would have been able to see anything, since the sun had gone down, and the power was still out, but it was still unnerving.

Beyond that movable wall, there was another room; just as large as the parlors, but virtually empty, with the walls painted a sort of off-navy-blue color, but one wall of that room was dominated by an enormous door, which looked like some kind of forty-foot-tall vault. Handing the torch to Adam for a moment, Dracula had seized the vault door in both hands, and started to pull it open, producing a sort of soft grinding noise from within the huge hinges of the door. Adam was amazed by the depth of planning that seemed to have gone into that whole setup, however. After all, the people in that room were, as far as he could tell, the only ones strong enough to open a door that size. It required a musclepower that was more than human, just to get that vault open or closed, so it hardly needed to be locked.

However, what was beyond the door really surprised Adam quite a bit. As soon as the vault door was opened, there was a sheer drop; a good thirty feet straight down, then another sheer drop only ten or so yards after it, of about the same size. There also seemed to be a third drop, but Adam couldn't tell from where he was standing. Still, it was obvious that Dracula had carved out a place for himself beneath his mansion. The walls were reinforced metal, painted red and blue, like the side of a battleship, and the place was positively enormous. Every last door was massive and heavy-looking, and every ceiling stretched up a good sixty-five feet.

Dracula had leapt down into the underground chamber without a moment's hesitation, and only a couple of seconds later, Nancy had descended quickly and joyfully into the large, open chamber belowground. Kong had followed too, not long after, using his long arms to lower himself down, which just left Adam and Barry on the first floor.

Adam knew that he'd be able to make it down to the bottom floor without injuring himself, and he was even more sure that Barry could do it too, but the boy looked like he was starting to feel skittish again, and Adam could tell that some of his old survival instincts were returning, and he was starting to feel scared. Still, Dracula was moving on ahead, into the underground sections of his home, and if they didn't hurry, they'd be left behind. Adam didn't feel right about leaving Barry alone there, and on some level, he still felt partly responsible for him, so after a moment, he turned to face the young man with what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face.

"It'll be alright." Adam Frankenstein remarked to the young werewolf boy, "If you don't want to jump, then just follow my lead."

"Yeah... Yeah, sure." Barry muttered, still looking very uncomfortable with the odd, new world he'd found himself in, but for the moment, it seemed that he was seeing Adam Frankenstein as an anchor of sorts; someone who wanted to keep him safe, no matter which world he was in; monster or human.

For some reason, that cheered Adam up just a little, so he was feeling much more confident when he swung himself over the edge of the large, metal wall, and felt the energy inside of him move in a new way; traveling outward through his fingers, and giving him just enough friction to dig his hands into the metal. Bit by bit, Adam descended that wall, using his mighty hands and feet to bend the metal inward, creating handholds for himself on the way down. It was a tough climb at first, but once he got the hang of it, he was able to speed up, and reached the ground in a relatively short period of time, looking back up to where Barry was still staring at him, awstruck.

"I can't do that!" Barry exclaimed in exasperation from the top of the large wall, but Adam just started laughing at that point.

"Barry, if you can put gouges in solid rock, you can grab onto a wall like this one. Give yourself more credit. You're a lot more powerful than you realize. Lycanthropy is a terrible curse, but it's a mighty power as well."

Barry still looked largely unconvinced, but regardless, he started swinging his legs over the edge of the metal wall, digging his long, sharp nails into the painted surface. However, at that point, something happened that Adam hadn't been expecting at all; something that gave both him and Barry a huge shock. Instead of embedding themselves in the metal, Barry's nails seemed to be tearing through it like red-hot knives, making long cuts in the metal, and swiftly lowering him along its surface. It fact, it started to happen so quickly, that Barry lost his balance, and let go of the wall. Moments later, he was falling; too far from the wall to have any hope of grabbing hold of it again.

Quickly, Adam calculated the place where Barry was likely to land, but he wasn't really sure what to do. Barry was picking up speed as he fell, and whether he landed on the metal floor, or in Frankenstein's arms, the impact wasn't going to be much easier on him. Still, Adam knew that he had to do something, so he leapt upward, as hard as he could, hoping that he'd be able to grab the boy out of the air in time.

However, it seemed that the shock of suddenly being in free-fall had done something to Barry, because he looked as if he'd lost control of himself for a moment, and was flailing around in mid-air; virtually impossible to catch without getting a cut of some kind. Adam made one fruitless attempt, but there wasn't enough time to make another. Soon, both of them crashed to the floor again, and Adam was the only one who'd landed on his feet.

Quickly, Adam Frankenstein had spun around, hoping that there might be some way to help the young boy; to get him to a doctor before his injuries grew too bad, but when he saw Barry Hammerson again, he realized in relief that there hadn't been any point in worrying.

Barry had landed on his back on the metal floor, and looked really shocked at first, but didn't seem to have suffered any damage to his spine or rib cage. In fact, it didn't look as if any of his bones had been broken at all. What was even more incredible, however, was that even after a fall of several dozen feet, Barry Hammerson didn't even seem to be bruised. He looked just fine. In fact, a moment later, he started righting himself, and looking around in stunned silence, as if he wasn't even sure what had just happened. It was only then that Adam started to realize the truth. Of course the fall hadn't hurt Barry. The floor was very hard, and made of a strong kind of metal, but it wasn't made of silver; the only substance in the world that could kill a werewolf. Still, it seemed appropriate to at least ask Barry if he was in one piece.

"Are you alright?" Adam asked, helping the young man to his feet, but Barry didn't answer for several seconds. He still looked very dazed, or at least confused by his survival, but at last, he seemed to realize what had happened, and what Adam was saying, and started trying to speak again. However, he was a tough kid, and it only took him a couple of seconds to start forming coherent words again.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine. It didn't... didn't hurt at all."

"It didn't?" Adam asked, a little surprised by that himself, "Not at all? Not even any aches or pains? No bruises?"

"No..." Barry muttered, his astonishment still seeming to grow with every second that passed, "Nothing. I... I'm... How could I be so powerful?"

However, Adam had a response ready for that, even though it would most likely not be very reassuring.

"This is what it means to be a monster; terrifying power with a terrible price. Without the power, you'd just be a curiosity; not a monster."

However, Barry was still feeling himself over in shock, as if he were trying to determine what part of his body had kept him from getting injured just then. At last, however, he seemed to have given up on that, looking back up at Adam, and starting to smile just a bit, and when he spoke next, it was obvious that something inside of him had changed, because he sounded a lot less nervous than before.

"We need to talk about this whole 'monster' thing, but we can do that later. For now, let's just catch up with the others, alright?"

Adam merely nodded in reply, pleased to see that Barry was starting to cheer up. Most likely, he still hadn't realized just what a terrible curse lycanthropy was, or what kind of horrible price it would demand from him, but at the very least, it was good to see him happy again; even if it was only for a short time. Adam didn't think he'd ever seen that kind of smile on old Talbot's face, but then, Talbot had already been a full-grown man when he'd contracted the supernatural disease. He'd understood, almost from the start, just how terrible his transformation was.

* * *

Adam and Barry had caught up with Dracula and the others quickly enough, although he hadn't shown them much in that underground base of his. They'd passed several doors, but he didn't say much about them, just pointing out where the food was kept, where they could stay and relax for a while if they needed to, and where the best spots were to read and study. He also pointed out the bathrooms, and the location of a place that he called "the lab," but that still meant that there were twenty-six other doors down there, which he hadn't explained the purpose of. Adam was feeling very curious about those, but he wasn't sure whether it would be worth asking about them or not. Dracula didn't seem like the kind of person to have a bunch of rooms constructed for no reason, so Adam suspected that they did contain something, but as for what, he could only guess.

The one thing which Dracula did make sure to point out to his new army was the contents of "the lab." Unlike most of the other rooms down there, the doorways weren't big enough to admit Kong or Nancy, but there were upper-level windows, allowing them to look into it, and see what was going on inside, and of course, Adam and Barry got the chance to go inside in person, and meet with someone who seemed to almost be living in that room.

The sole inhabitant of "the lab" was a bespectacled, black-haired woman with a long, acquiline nose. Even by ordinary standards, she was very short; barely over four and a half feet tall, but there was no fear on her face, even once Dracula introduced Adam and the others to her. If anything, she looked thrilled to meet them, as if it was something she'd been waiting for her whole life.

The woman had claimed that her name was Doctor Stephanie Dobson, and that she was an expert physicist and cyberneticist, but there was something about her that Adam just didn't like. She had a fiery, determined look in her eye; a look of boundless curiosity, but without the strength of character needed to assume ethical responsibility for the results of her actions. In fact, he realized silently, she reminded him unpleasantly of his father; Victor Frankenstein.

Adam was almost sure that he'd heard the name "Dobson" somewhere in the past; in a newspaper article having to do with some kind of monster, or something like that, but he couldn't remember where, exactly, so, he reasoned, it must have been during the years when he'd submerged his full intelligence. It was a pity, he thought, because he would have preferred to understand just what kind of person he was dealing with, but no matter what kind of person Dobson was, she didn't seem like the kind to betray them to the aliens, and in the end, that was the important thing.

Still, she'd made Adam feel pretty uncomfortable, so after a while, when Dracula had said that they wouldn't be making any more moves for the next few hours, Adam left the lab area, retreating to the room which their host had called "the common room." It was bigger than most gymnasiums, but very nicely-designed; almost opulent, in a way. It had a water cooler the size of a swimming pool on one side of the room, and a normal-sized one on the other side. In fact, the whole room seemed like it was divided in half; between monstrous recreational equipment; clearly intended for use by giants, and normal-sized furniture, books and decorations. There was a bizarre feeling to the whole place. In fact, for a little while, Adam almost felt more like Alice; sucked down a rabbit hole, and finding that the world around him had grown enormous and twisted. Nancy would probably be thrilled by that place, but Adam was very unsatisfied there.

As unsatisfied as he was, however, Adam found that he didn't have a very hard time relaxing on one of the larger couch cushions. He climbed to the top of the large piece of furniture and stretched himself out on the soft, red fabric, still amazed to find that it was long enough to support his entire body; from head to toe. After all, most of the furniture in the world hadn't been designed with a seven-foot man in mind, and yet that one had been made for beings much larger than him. It was certainly a strange sensation; like suddenly being on the other side of a microscope. Though he was feeling more physically comfortable than he had in years, he wasn't thrilled by the feelings that accompanied that comfort.

Adam continued to lie on that couch cushion with his eyes closed for several minutes after that, soaking in the silence, and the damp air that filled the compound. There was something almost bog-like about the air in that place, but without the foul smell of an actual bog. It was something which, for once, Adam actually found himself liking, and it really helped him relax, though he still didn't fall asleep. Instead, he continued to lay on that cushion, rolling over a number of thoughts in his head, and silently questioning just why he'd agreed to join Vlad Dracula anyway.

Adam had only had about fifteen minutes alone with his thoughts, before he started to hear a loud, repeating trembling from outside, and sat up again, looking in the direction of the noise. It sounded like one of the larger members of their team; either Kong or Nancy, and it was coming from behind the doorway that Adam had entered by, so he stood up on the tremendous seat cushion, looking towards the doorway, and ready to jump back off the giant couch at a moment's notice. However, when the door finally started to slowly open, Adam could see that, for the moment, he really had nothing to worry about. Nancy was stepping cautiously through the door, looking around for any sign of her teammates, as if she was worried about crushing one of them by accident; which was a nice gesture, if a bit wasted on them. When she saw Adam, though, she looked a little nervous; not afraid in any sense, just slightly intimidated; most likely by his fame.

Adam had to admit that the renown, which both he and his father had received over the course of the last century was one thing that he'd never quite gotten used to. It had gotten to the point where it was difficult to even take the name "Frankenstein" seriously anymore, not that Adam was accustomed to using that name if he didn't have to. Most of the time, though, people showed Adam a lot more fear than interest; as if he were nothing more than a monster; and not even capable of being decent to others. After all he'd done in the past; all the people he'd killed, Adam didn't feel as if he had the right to ask for better treatment, but still, it was encouraging to be regarded with something other than mere terror or derision.

Nancy, of course, was something of a monster herself, and like Adam, she was guilty of murder, and yet, she'd always shown him a form of respect, which innocent people almost never did. It was, Adam decided, a pleasing change from the norm, even if it was more than he deserved.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were in here." Nancy remarked in her thundrous voice, as soon as she'd noticed Adam, "Um... Did you want to be alone?"

"Not really; no." Adam replied, deciding to give Nancy the most polite answer he could think of, at the time, "Did you?"

"No..." Nancy admitted just as slowly, still not looking terribly confident as she stepped into the room, closing the door behind her, "I really just wanted to try to relax a little. It's hard, not knowing what's going to happen next, and... I mean we've only got about twenty hours left before the timer runs out, and... and there's no way to know what'll happen when it does. Plus, that Dracula is kind of... Well... I mean, what's your perspective on all this?"

By that point, Nancy had taken a seat on the huge couch, opposite the place where Adam was sitting. He still felt a little odd talking to her like that, but he'd been hurt too badly by the prejudice of others to ever display it himself, and besides, he actually thought that Nancy was very beautiful, so he responded to her question as best he could.

"I haven't really thought much about the aliens yet, Miss Archer." Adam admitted ruefully.

"All these strange things are a lot to take in, right?" Nancy asked sympathetically, but if that had been the only problem, it wouldn't have disracted Adam quite that badly.

"It's more than that." Adam explained pretty soon, hoping that Nancy wouldn't get the wrong impression, "I've been trying to put my past behind me and stop manhandling people. A lot of bad things happened to me in the past, because I couldn't control myself, and for some reason, it seems like the more I try to live the simple life, the easier it is to stay in control. Now... now I can't live the simple life anymore, and that's going to be difficult for me. Part of me still wants to go back to that tent I used to live in, and the monastery in the midwest, and that's making it even harder to absorb all this new information, about my new job; what I have to do next. None of this is going to be easy for me, but then, I'm sure you're having a hard time adjusting too; I mean, to all these new surroundings; this new lifestyle."

However, for some reason, Nancy just started looking sad when Adam suggested that, as if something that he'd said had depressed her.

"I was really more worried about the mission than anything else." Nancy admitted, sounding a little upset with herself for being unable to relate to Adam, "I guess I didn't really think about what you'd been through. Honestly, going on missions to fight bad guys with strange weapons or powers is nothing new to me; I've been doing it for decades. I didn't mean to alienate you, though. I apologize if I did that."

"No, it's alright." Adam said, doing his best to smile as he held one hand up in her direction, "Don't worry about it. I... I'll have to deal with this myself."

Of course, Adam had been hoping to cheer Nancy up at the time, but for some reason, she'd just started looking more and more sad when he'd spoken to her like that, then looked away for a moment, as if she'd just been told that her dog had died.

If he'd been just a bit less intelligent, or just a bit younger, Adam might have been puzzled by Nancy's behavior. However, he could already tell what the problem was. Colonel Archer had been hoping to be of some help to him, and he seemed to have just brushed her aside. It probably hadn't insulted her, but it might have made her feel discouraged to think that she couldn't do anything to help him out, and when Adam Frankenstein realized that, something inside of him changed forever.

Adam had been trying to avoid human contact for quite a while in the past; living in the wilderness, and hiding as best he could whenever people were near. Really, avoiding people had been one of his biggest motivators in the recent past, whether he'd wanted to admit it or not. He'd acted that way because he'd never really experienced an interaction with any human being that he'd truly found rewarding or satisfying, except for Brother Brieve. Brother Brieve had been civilized and strong-willed; almost as if he were more than human as well, and Adam had become his friend because of that; not wanting to avoid him the way that he did everyone else. Then, however, Nancy had shown him the very same kind of behavior; the attitude of a person who was eager to help him, just because she cared about him.

Adam had read about love in books before; the aspect of the human heart that leads it to sacrifice for the benefit of others, but until he'd met Brother Brieve, he'd never seen it in action before, and even afterwards, he'd assumed that it was a very rare phenomenon, which only one person in a million knew how to demonstrate. However, Nancy had shown him love too, by caring about him, and registering sadness for his sake, and that was when Adam knew that no matter what happened after that, he had a purpose in life. He had to follow Nancy's example. He had to try, one more time, to love and care about others, and in gratitude to her, he decided, he would do his best to help her from that moment on; no matter what kind of mission they needed to complete, or what kind of danger they'd face in the future. Adam Frankenstein owed Nancy Archer a debt of gratitude for restoring some hope to his heart, and he had every intention of paying that debt back to the best of his ability.

Adam was just about to say something to Nancy about that, but unfortunately, he didn't get the chance, because just then, the huge, metal door of the common room opened again, and in came the vampire lord with a broad smile on his face.

"Dracula?" Nancy asked, looking concerned as she sat upright, her sadness seeming to fade away, or at least take a back seat to her military professionalism, "What is it? Did something happen."

"Yes." Dracula replied however, still grinning from ear to ear, "It's very good news this time, however. Do you remember that monster, who I told you about; the one I thought was dead after all these years? Well, he's tearing apart the Harbour Bridge, right here in London."


	6. Chapter 6: Gill Man

Chapter 6: Gill-man

* * *

Of course, Dracula seemed to have appointed himself the leader of their new group, but Adam really felt like challenging it; especially once he heard the vampire's suggestions for what to do about the recently-surfaced monster in the London Harbour.

Dracula had said from the start, that sadly, he just didn't have the time to go recruit the new monster personally, but that he trusted Adam to serve in his place, and that he probably wouldn't need more than one other person to back him up, just in case things didn't go well. The problem, however, was when Dracula selected Adam's partner for the mission. He could have dealt with Nancy or Barry, or even King Kong, but Dracula hadn't picked any of them. No; Adam's partner for the mission was Dobson.

Of course, Dobson obviously wasn't too pleased by the decision either. It seemed like she would have preferred to stay in the lab and keep working. She didn't seem furious, though, which differentiated her from Adam. By the end of a minute, he was virtually shouting at Dracula in open rage.

"You have no right to force me to work with her! With my past, do you honestly believe we'll be able to work together like civilized people?" Adam bellowed, but Dracula didn't look intimidated in the least. In fact, he seemed to be smiling for some reason.

"If you can't work on civilized terms with her, it'll be difficult to rely on you during the invasion." Dracula replied in an almost taunting way, "I thought you said that you wanted to put your past behind you. Are you going back on that?"

"No, but you can't ask me to work with her." Adam insisted, speaking a bit more softly, but Dracula still didn't look like he was likely to budge.

"If you're trying to tell me that this doesn't really have to do with your past, I think we both know that's a lie." Dracula said icily, "Neither one of us knows much about Dobson yet at all, so I don't have the right to trust her, and you don't have the right to refuse to give her a chance. If you're going to start acting like a civilized person, Adam, then you'd better start by treating each person differently. Stop pretending that Dobson is Victor in disguise."

Every ounce of malicious ill-will in Dracula seemed to have been in those words, but as much as Adam hated to admit it, he was probably right. Dobson made Adam feel weak and afraid, as if he were being continually betrayed whenever she was around, and yet, those were the exact same things he'd felt the last time he'd met with his creator. He couldn't really confirm that he was transferring his feelings for his father onto Doctor Dobson, but he couldn't deny it either. Something about her just reminded Adam of Victor Frankenstein, no matter how much he tried to see her as a new person, with a different past and a different personality. It was making it much more difficult for Adam to deal with her, but that didn't let him off the hook, he knew. Unless she'd really done something horrible to him, he had no right to reject her out of hand.

Dracula seemed to realize that the argument was over, although he was scowling again when Adam left his room, and started for the exit, almost hoping that he'd be able to avoid seeing Dobson until it was absolutely neccesary. However, he wasn't destined to have such good luck.

It seemed that Dobson had been waiting for Adam by the doorway to a small elevator; just barely big enough for Adam to fit inside. It certainly wouldn't have been sufficient for Nancy or Kong, but then, they had their own exit from that place. In a way, Adam felt better about there being at least a few exits from the building that didn't make him feel tiny. However, he didn't say a word to Dobson as the two stepped into the elevator together; the doors closing behind them. Just then, though, Adam started thinking about his current situation, and realized that there was something that he had to ask Dobson about.

"I assume this elevator is mechanical."

"No." she replied, "It runs on a source of pure heat energy, which I designed. I had just enough time to finish making those modifications for a few simple functions of the base before you arrived; elevators, refridgerators, air purifiers, temperature regulators... the basics. The televisions still don't work, but then again, would you want them to, even if someone was broadcasting?"

To his horror, Adam actually found himself agreeing with Dobson about that. He hadn't really wanted the power to come back on, and television was the main reason. He'd never really liked television much, ever since it had first been invented. He found it distracting and annoying, and yet, he had a hard time imagining that any of that really mattered to someone like Dobson.

"What do you care what I want?" Adam just asked, but Dobson still didn't look offended. In fact, she seemed more interested than ever.

"Well, I'd prefer if the two of us could get along." Dobson said, still smiling broadly, "It'd make it much easier to get things done. I'm not going to hide that I have wants of my own, of course. Personally, I'd love to know how Doctor Frankenstein managed to integrate a steady electrical current directly into your synapses without frying them, but making you miserable isn't going to help either of us just yet. That's how I see it."

Those words had succeeded in upsetting Adam again, but no more than usual, which he found a little surprising. She'd basically just told him that she was curious about how he'd been put together, and had every intention of someday taking him apart to find out, and yet, it hadn't made him feel any worse than just standing next to her in silence. It was strange, but then, maybe it was because he'd been expecting the worst from Stephanie Dobson since they'd first met. At the very least, she seemed to be honest with her words.

"The London Harbour is pretty far from here." Adam said after a few more moments of silence, dropping the last discussion they'd had completely, "By foot, I can probably get there inside of three minutes. Do you think you'll be able to keep up?"

Inside, Adam was hoping for a "no" answer, which he could use as an excuse to ditch the young scientist, but her reply was definitely different from what he'd expected.

"I can move fast if I have to. I might even beat you there, though if this monster is who I think he is, I may need your help to fend him off. He... has a history with my family."

More than ever, Adam was feeling disappointed with himself for not being able to remember where he'd heard the name "Dobson" before, but as much as he would have loved to know more about the strange scientist, he wasn't desperate enough to ask.

* * *

Adam already knew where he was headed, and he started off at a sprint the moment that he was outside of Dracula's mansion, but by that point, it seemed that Dobson had fallen behind, or turned aside to take her own route to the harbour; a fact that didn't make Adam feel the least bit disappointed. Soon, he was off and running through the populous streets of London, passing by apartment buildings, shops and restaurants, civic buildings and commercial office buildings, just slowly enough to be seen visibly by the people he was dashing by. Adam's every leg muscle had been specifically selected for its strength and speed, and they gave him the combined running speed of a dozen olympic-level athletes; enough to outrun most cars at their own top speed. He hadn't always been so fast, of course, but that had mainly been a result of the time when his higher brain functions had been blocked out, preventing him from reacting quickly enough to sprint. Even though those days were over, he could still remember some of what it had been like; the dull, plodding, lugubrious man he'd been at the time, and how, even then, he'd been extremely dangerous to ordinary people. With his great speed and intelligence restored, he knew that ordinary humans would only see him as being a much more dangerous monster.

Indeed, many people screamed or started running as he passed by, even though he was careful to avoid touching anyone. He could see the fear in their eyes as he moved in the direction of the harbour, and for the first time in years, he didn't really feel like condemning them for it. Their lives had been uprooted, and they were terrified for their very lives, and in that kind of situation, he reasoned, they really did have a right to jump at shadows, even if those shadows had no intention of harming any of them. Still, Adam had stopped defining himself by the feelings of others, which were fleeting, and mostly misleading anyway. He wanted to live his life by absolute values instead; real ethics; not just doing things that made people feel good, and finally understanding what love was made it a lot easier to grasp how to do that.

Those were the thoughts that drove Adam on, to the place where he could see a large commotion up ahead, as a collection of law officers gathering together near one end of the Harbour Bridge.

Even from a distance, Adam could tell that the law officers had firearms, and they seemed to be trying to defend themselves against an average-sized figure that was standing there, hidden from Adam's sight by the shadow of the large towers that dominated each side of the bridge. However, he continued to advance as quickly as he could, hoping to reach the bridge in time to prevent anyone from dying. He could already see that the creature was breaking off pieces of the bridge towers in its hands, and shaking almost the whole thing every time it did that. Clearly, his strength was monstrous, and something would have to be done about him very soon, or he might even manage to destroy the whole structure.

Adam continued watching the creature carefully as he rushed towards it with all the speed he could manage, but before he could even get there, it made a move. It had been holding two pieces of metal, seemingly torn off the bridge itself, in its hands up to that point. Each was the size of a wagon wheel, except rectangular, and neither one looked like they would have stopped gunfire. However, that didn't seem to be the creature's plan. One of the officers had started shouting at the creature in a loud voice, seemingly trying to get some kind of message across to it, but it clearly wasn't listening to him, and a moment later, it had hurled one of the metal plates at him like a frisbee. The broken metal collided hard with the place where the law officers had been standing, knocking three of them to the ground with serious cuts. Most of the others managed to get out of the way, but none of them, it seemed, were in any shape to fight, and it looked like the creature was about to take advantage of that, weilding the other metal plate in one hand like a broadaxe. The worst part, however, was that Adam was still more than five yards too far away to do anything about it.

Just at that moment, however, a jet of fire seemed to erupt from the very ground, no more than a yard from the creature's position. It was partially blue, like a gas flame, and it was nearly five feet tall, however, it didn't last long, and soon, there was Dobson, standing in the middle of that battlefield in her oil-stained lab coat, and yet, looking for all the world as if she'd planned it out that way.

At that point, though, Adam was starting to get mixed feelings. On the one hand, it would be an understatement to say that he didn't like Dobson, but she also looked fairly defenseless, especially against a creature like that, which seemed able to tear metal apart with its bare hands. The creature had paused for a fraction of a second, to be sure, but it probably wouldn't take it long to go on the attack again, so Adam rushed forward as quickly as he could and slugged it hard across the face.

For a moment, the creature looked like it had really gotten the worst from that punch, starting to choke just a little as Adam watched it back away, and that was the first time that he'd had the chance to get any kind of decent look at it. However, he immediately recognized it when he did. It was human-sized, but with a powerful muscle structure, and it was covered in scales, with thick, short fins along its arms, legs, back and head. Its face was more fish-like than anything resembling human, and it had tiny slits that slightly resembled gills. However, it also had sharp-looking claws on both its arms and legs.

As soon as Adam saw all that, he realized just what he was fighting, and remembered where he'd heard the name "Dobson." The monster he'd just punched was the urban legend that had once been called "the Gill-man," the unique fish-man creature, which had once terrorized the black lagoon of the amazon rainforest. It had later been captured and studied in Florida, where it had broken free, and terrorized even more people for a while; one of whom had been a woman named Helen Dobson, but Adam had no idea what had happened to Helen after the incident in Florida. He'd assumed that she'd just gone back to her normal life, but judging by Stephanie's behavior, that probably wasn't the case.

For the moment, Adam turned back to face the Gill-man, starting to feel a bit of hope again. Later studies into the Gill-man had revealed that it possessed some level of intelligence, which meant that it could probably be reasoned with, if he could only convince it to listen to him. It probably wouldn't be easy, of course, especially after he'd just slugged it so hard, but...

Just then, Adam heard the deafening sound of a handgun being fired.

Already close to panicking over the drastic turn that events were starting to take, Adam spun around to search for the man who'd just fired, and he found him fairly quickly, but at that point, a few things happened at once. Adam heard a voice from behind him, sounding as if it were hissing a bit with each word, remark "Dobson," and in a flash, the Gill-man was back up, and there was the sound of another gunshot.

That time, Adam decided to just do what he could to try to stop that situation from escalating, by rushing forward and seizing the gun out of the hand of the trigger-happy policeman. The man looked flabbergasted and confused by Adam's reaction at first, but then, a realization seemed to be dawning on his face, as he realized just who it was that had taken his weapon, and seemed to be close to trembling. However, something changed in the young law officer's expression when Adam spoke to him.

"You can't do anything to help me. Get out of here now!"

Then, with one swift motion, Adam had flung the gun into the harbour waters, and turned back to face the Gill-man again, just in time to see the very thing he'd feared, happening before his eyes. The Gill-man had advanced on Dobson, and she was trying to fight him off, looking very aggrivated by his monstrous strength and speed.

The Gill-man had swung his mighty arms around towards her in a sweeping motion, but Dobson had countered by raising her own arms. Of course, with his strength, Adam was sure that her arms would be shattered by the blow, and his claws did indeed tear through the arms of her lab coat, but underneath, they met with something unexpected; something tougher than steel, and glittering like silver. Even Adam was shocked to see that. Dobson was wearing some kind of device around her lower arms, and it seemed to be not only functioning as armor, but augmenting her strength as well. It was certainly more than he'd expected from her.

However, it seemed that the Gill-man was reacting to the unexpected armor quickly, delivering another blow at an angle, which Dobson also managed to block just in time. However, that was when the Gill-man made his real move, chaining that last sweeping blow into a backhanded swipe, and knocking Dobson clear off her feet from the force of the blow. She continued to soar helplessly through the air for several feet, until she collided hard with the side of one of the bridge towers, looking very injured, in spite of the armor that she'd had hidden under her lab coat. In only a few seconds, the Gill-man had gained the upper hand, taking advantage of Dobson's momentary weakness and seizing her by the throat in his left hand, while balling his right into a fist. By that point, though, Adam had started charging at him again. After all, he'd knocked the Gill-man down once, and, he reasoned, he could do it again.

However, it seemed that the Gill-man also remembered being knocked down, because as fast as Adam was moving, he wasn't prepared for his opponent's next move. Still holding Dobson in one hand, the Gill-man's foot shot out at the last second, just as Adam's fist was about to collide with him, and in a moment more, Adam was flying backwards too; his jaw feeling like it was on fire.

Soon, Adam hit something, and felt a very hard substance with countless sharp points pressing into his skin from behind. However, the worst pain was still in his jaw, and after a few moments, he realized why.

Adam's jaw, he discovered in dismay, had been shattered in several places by the kick that monster had given him. He could tell, because the jawbone wasn't even connected properly anymore. For a moment, he tried to move it, but it was a wasted effort. Too many of his jaw-muscles had been blown to pieces by that superhuman kick, and they wouldn't have had much luck moving the shattered jawbone, even if they'd been in perfect health. The pain was excruciating, and on top of everything else, Adam knew, it would prevent him from speaking in the near future. For a moment, that gave him pause.

However, as Adam stopped to consider his position and his next move, he tried to stand up, and noticed in dismay that his body had been embedded in the front end of a car that had simply stopped working when the power had gone out worldwide. The whole front of the car looked like it was twisted all around; almost forming the shape of his body, though not quite. The engine had been demolished, the hood was unrecognizable, and the winshield was a mess of broken glass. In fact, the entire front seat of the car had been squashed like a tin can by Adam's impact with it, just from the force of one simple kick from that creature. It was a humbling testament to the Gill-man's sheer brute strength, and on top of that, Adam wasn't really sure why he and the creature were fighting. After all, he may have just overreacted to the police, and neither of them seemed to like Dobson much. Adam had to admit that he and the creature really had a lot in common, and yet, somehow, leaving Dobson in the hands of that beast didn't sit right with Adam, no matter what the risk was. It was a puzzle, because he wasn't really sure why he felt that way. Still, for the moment, trying to reason with the monster was out of the question.

As Adam got to his feet, however, liberating himself from the twisted metal and shattered glass of the car, he heard the creature speak again, sounding furious.

"I've been looking for you, Dobson. After what you did, you deserve death!"

"Deserve?" Dobson choked out, sounding more confused than afraid, "What are you blathering about? What do you mean, deserve?"

"Still pretending to be an idiot when it suits your purposes..." the Gill-man hissed back, "This time, there's no escape."

Then, the creature started drawing its fist backward, but by that point, Adam knew what he had to do. As little as he liked Dobson, and as dangerous as the creature was, he knew he couldn't just stand by and let it demolish her. Soon, he was speeding up again, charging forward with a fresh plan in mind. The Gill-man seemed to have spotted him again, but by that point, Adam intended more than just one straightforward attack. Just as the Gill-man was about to kick Adam again, he seized the creature's leg with both of his arms, and found himself being lifted completely into the air by its powerful muscles, as if he weighed almost nothing. He was still amazed by just how strong the Gill-man was, but he knew he couldn't let that amazement slow him down, or he could wind up dying.

Still clinging to the monster's leg, Adam watched him for signs of another move; some form of counterattack, like the one he'd used against Dobson, and sure enough, it came in no time. The Gill-man was already standing on only one leg, and having to balance that way, while holding both Dobson and Adam in the air. It must have been difficult, so he really only had one option open to him. Quickly, the Gill-man reached around with his right arm in a clawing motion, but Adam had been waiting for that.

As the Gill-man clawed at Adam viciously, Adam let go of his leg with one arm, and grabbed the creature's arm with his free hand before it could land its intended blow. He knew he couldn't hold the monster for long, but, he reasoned, if he could just hang onto it for a few moments, it might be enough to give him the upper hand. Sure enough, Adam could see that his plan was paying off. The creature was already starting to lose its balance.

The Gill-man hit the bridge with a crash before long, though he looked like he might just get up and attack again at any moment. However, Adam's plan had at least accomplished one thing; Dobson was free from his grip, and was rushing away from him as fast as she could go, looking terrified. In just another second, she seemed to be pulling something from within her lab coat, but the moment that Adam spared her a glance, the Gill-man made his move again.

In one single motion, faster than Adam had been expecting, the creature grabbed him by one arm and one leg, and lifted him completely over its head. Soon, Adam was flying away from the Gill-man again, hitting the hard pavement just a moment later, but he hadn't been as badly injured by that attack, and at the very least, it seemed as if the Gill-man was having a hard time locating his intended target.

"What? Where is she?" the Gill-man hissed furiously, his anger seeming to grow with every moment that passed, "No! Not again! She can't have disappeared again! I had her! I had her right in my hand!"

It had taken Adam about that long to get back on his feet again, but the Gill-man was already headed right towards him with a truly bloodthirsty look in his eyes, and Adam knew that far from solving their problem, it looked as if he and Dobson had managed to make things worse somehow. Sure enough, his guess was confirmed a moment later, when the creature hissed at him directly, for the first time since their fight had begun.

"You shouldn't have interfered, whoever you are. I can still find her, but first, you die."

Adam tried to prepare himself for whatever was about to come next, but the worst part was that he had no idea what that was, and the Gill-man had already proven that he was the stronger of the two of them. Adam knew that he was at a pretty bad disadvantage, and it only got worse a moment later, when the Gill-man reached to his left, and seized a silent, empty car from where it had been abandoned on the roadside, lifting it all the way into the air with both of his hands. Then, in only a moment later, it too was flying through the air, and Adam had only a second to try to figure out how to deal with that new threat.

As clever as his tactics had been up to that point, Adam found that he was starting to slow down and lose his concentration; most likely from the persistent agony in his jaw, and that was probably the reason why the only thing he could think of was to try his best to catch the flying vehicle.

With half a minute, or even fifteen seconds on his hands, Adam might have been able to accustom his muscles to the weight of the car that the Gill-man has sent hurtling towards him, but trying to lift a tremendous weight, it turned out, was one thing, and having a car thrown at you was another. The vehicle hit Adam's arms, and he could feel the metal bending around his fingers. However, the weight and speed of the motor vehicle had also knocked him off-balance, and soon, he'd crashed to the ground again, feeling the crushing weight of the car continuing to press down on top of him. It almost felt as if the Gill-man's hands were still holding him in their steely grip.

Soon there was a noise like metal colliding with metal, and the weight that was crushing Adam nearly doubled. Starting to feel terrified again, he looked up, and there it was; another car on top of the first; apparently the Gill-man's latest attack. Like a true monster, he was taking advantage of his defenseless opponent. Still, Adam thought, with a few seconds to prepare, he might be able to lift the weight off...

Then, however, there was another crashing noise, and another, then a fifth followed shortly, and with each sound, Adam felt the metal points of the car frame just over him being driven further and further into his flesh. At last, he felt his concentration starting to slip away again, as the pain nearly drove him back into the mindless brute he'd once been; the one who'd been so afraid of his own intelligence, that he'd completely blocked it out. However, even if he was about to die, Adam knew that he couldn't do that. Live or die, he insisted in the silence of his heart, he was going to do it as a civilized being.

It felt like an eternity passed at that point, though it was probably more like fifteen seconds. Adam noticed something was different just then, because the Gill-man had stopped adding metal to the pile that covered Adam at that point, and he was standing just over the place where Adam's head could still be seen, underneath the debris. However, at that point, the Gill-man was starting to look puzzled, as if his anger had just disappeared, and a sort of odd curiosity had replaced it. Adam had once heard that someone in America had attempted to train the Gill-man to live like a human, but even he was amazed by just how human the Gill-man seemed to have become, and how human-like his emotions were when he spoke. In spite of his predicament, and his own fears, Adam couldn't help but notice that, though brutal and savage, the Gill-man was really much more man than fish.

"I wish you could speak right now." the Gill-man said as he stood over Adam with an unreadable expression on his fish-like countenance, "I wonder why you cared so much about her. I wonder if you even knew her, or if you just saw me as a troublemaker. I suppose it doesn't matter."

When Adam heard that, it only made him feel worse, because he knew that he could have reasoned with the beast, if only he'd had the use of his mouth. It was clearly intelligent, and even contemplative, but there was no way for him to communicate with it anymore. It was a sure bet that the Gill-man wouldn't understand sign language, even if his hands hadn't been pinned.

However, as tragic as that situation was, Adam refused to just give up. The Gill-man looked like it was about to finish him off, and at one time, he might not have offered much resistence, but he'd become a different kind of man over the last few years. In fact, a lot about him had changed over the last couple of hours alone. Once, Adam Frankenstein had felt lost, but recently, he'd been given some direction for his life and his talents. On top of that, thanks to Nancy Archer, he knew that he had a specific purpose too; one thing that no matter what, he could never give up on, even if it killed him. He needed to survive, if he wanted to fulfill that purpose, and that meant that somehow, he had to win.

Adam had impressed himself with how much stronger his will had grown over the more recent years, as he'd learned the truth about life and himself, but in that moment, his determination was still continuing to increase. In fact, it was stronger than it had ever been, and with that determination to never give up, there came a strength that refused to quit.

Adam's muscles all tensed up as he seized hold of the car pile that covered him; heedless of the metal that continuing biting into his flesh as he did so. His already-warped body was being further disfigured by the crushing metal, and yet, he refused to yield, as his determination grew and grew, until, at long last, he could feel the metal starting to give. The Gill-man, for his part, seemed to have paused for a moment in amazement, but was quickly regaining his composure, and preparing another attack. However, by that point, Adam had managed to get one knee to the ground, and after all that straining and struggling with the tremendous weight of all those cars, that tiny bit of leverage had been all that he'd needed.

In a fraction of a second, cars started falling from on top of him, as Adam shoved the entire pile back, and at last, he was free again, though injured all over, with a hubcap in one hand and a sharp piece of metal, torn from a car door in the other. Adam only had a moment to make his move, however, because the Gill-man had picked up one of the fallen cars, and was swinging it around like a monstrous club. However, by that point, Adam could see a weakness in his technique. He just hoped that his body would hold out long enough to take advantage of it.

As the Gill-man swung the car around in a wide arc, Adam ducked under it, deflecting it with the large hubcap in his right hand. Then, the Gill-man turned the car around for another swing, and Adam made his next move, jumping to one side, and digging into one of the pipes under the car with his jagged metal fragment. At once, the thin pipe split open under Adam's strength, spilling some kind of liquid all over that section of the car. The Gill-man seemed to realize that Adam had done something, and raised the car up, preparing for another swing, but just at that moment, the liquid started spreading all over his hands, and soon, he'd lost his grip on the small vehicle. In that brief split second, Adam made his move.

Quickly, as the car fell from Gill-man's hands, Adam took its weight onto his right shoulder, then slammed it right into the Gill-man as hard as he could. In just another moment, he'd jumped right over the entire car, and descended in the fish-creature, bringing his makeshift sword down...

The Gill-man was bleeding very badly a moment later, looking almost half-dead, which was about how Adam felt. Still, he'd succeeded in staying alive, if nothing else. He'd beaten an enemy armed with superior strength, and for the next several hours at least, he tried to reassure himself that it was the only enemy he'd need to worry about.

However, even as those thoughts passed through Adam's head, he saw something that sent a fresh feeling of terror through him; someone seemed to be fading into existence; right before his very eyes, and it was the last person he wanted to see at that point; Doctor Stephanie Dobson. She had just the same look on her face as before, and worse yet, she didn't look nearly as injured or weak as Adam. For the moment, he realized, he was at her mercy, and he couldn't even object to it aloud. However, she seemed to recognize the fear in Adam's face, because she spoke to him just a moment later.

"Oh, come on, Adam. Do you really think I'll throw away the most interesting specimen I've ever seen? I'm not going to dissect you. That would just be a waste. Still, we'll need to get both of you back to the base as quickly as possible, and I can do it. Watch..."

Then, with those words, Dobson pulled a small remote control of some kind from her lab coat, and turned a few dials on it. Soon, Adam found himself surrounded by the bright, blue flames that he'd seen before, but he was unconscious before he could see anything else.


	7. Chapter 7: Dracula and Dobson

Chapter 7: Dracula and Dobson

* * *

Just passed from light and into dark,  
I don't regret a thing,  
Not bright red wound, or bloody mark,  
nor wicked serpent's sting.

My aim, I find, is clear once more; to nobility's call,  
an aim from which I swear to never falter or to waver,  
and though from this aim I may find that I will surely fall,  
I ask for naught, though I may find a pretty lady's favor.

For from that hand of hers come blessings far beyond all cost,  
her gifts to me have left me truly stunned, from head to toe,  
so I insist, her generocity will not be lost!  
Now, wherever she departs, there also will I go...

The verses came upon Adam in a torrent, because there wasn't much else for him to think about. It was all darkness, all around him, and he could only dimly make out a few sounds nearby, so he was alone with his thoughts, and the verses came more quickly whenever that happened.

However, the silence wasn't destined to last. Soon, Adam found his eyes opening, almost on their own, and realized that he was lying down, in a room with a lot of bright lights. He felt like he was lying on a slab of metal, but it was perfectly flat, unlike the metal he'd been in contact with recently. For a moment, he forgot all of his surroundings, however, and subconsciously continued.

"Pray take this offer, lady fair, to let me follow thee.  
True faithfulness and gentleness will e'er be by your side.  
No creature will dare harm you, of the land of of the sea,  
if only you shall say you truly wish to be... to be..."

However, by that point, the bleariness was starting to clear from Adam's thoughts, and he sat bolt upright in one swift motion, looking around like mad, and searching for any other inhabitants of the room. It didn't take him long, unfortunately, to find one. Dobson was standing off to one side of the room, with a needle in one hand and a scalpel in the other, looking very much like a type of primitive surgeon, eager to operate. However, there was something in that eagerness that hadn't been there before. For one thing, her entire face, once so pale, seemed to have regained a bit of color. On top of that, she was starting to look more nervous than eager with every second that passed, and her first words to Adam only made it easier for him to understand why.

"Please don't stop, Adam. I want to hear the rest."

That, however, was when Adam began to scowl again, gritting his teeth together in fury over the situation he'd just been in; reciting improvised love poetry without even meaning to, to the one person in the world who he felt he loved the least. It made him want to scream out loud, and...

Just then, Adam ran one hand along his jaw in amazement. He could barely believe it, but it seemed to be in one piece again, and connected. It was a slightly different shape than before, but that just meant...

Quickly, Adam got to his feet, looking at Dobson in confusion. In a way, he thought, he really had misjudged her. He'd been so determined to see her in the way that he'd seen his father, and yet, there was a wisdom to her, which his father had lacked; a type of foresight, which almost seemed more manly than Victor Frankenstein had ever been. For a moment, Adam nearly forgot himself, and said something about it to her, but there were still too many things about her that he didn't like, and he didn't want to jump the gun with her, until he'd had a chance to talk to her about what she'd just been doing.

"I'm sorry. I can't finish the poem, but... You replaced my jaw, didn't you? Where did you get the new one?"

"Some dead comedian." Dobson just responded carelessly, "I figured it'd be best. These days, they do more jawing than anybody else."

Adam wasn't sure whether that was meant to be funny, though the favor she'd done him was just a bit endearing. However, he had at least one more question to ask her.

"What else did you find out about me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you had me laid out on that table, and you had the opportunity to run all sorts of tests on me."

"Don't I know it? I didn't, though."

"What?" Adam asked, truly shocked by that response, "I don't understand. Why? Why wouldn't you take advantage of the opportunity? I mean, you seem like the type."

"Well, I'm not niave." Dobson replied just a moment later, straightening her spectacles, "I know if I ever took advantage of you like that, even if it was for research, I'd never see you again, and a single day's study of you wouldn't be sufficient. I need more time than that."

"You could always just tranquilize me."

"For some reason, tranquilizers don't seem to work on you. I tried them while I was performing the operation, but you didn't calm down at all."

That surprised Adam a little bit, but he didn't bother to question it much. After all, it certainly wasn't the strangest of the gifts that his father had given him. What really surprised him was the remarkable consideration that Dobson had shown him during and after the procedure. She wore her feelings on her sleeve, and never seemed to lie about her intentions, but it also seemed like, for the moment, she was willing to show Adam some level of human respect, something which Victor had never done. That, he decided, changed a lot of things about their relationship, and for a moment, he was even reconsidering his decision about whether to let her run any tests on him, when she spoke to him again.

"Lord Dracula wanted to meet with you once you were all in one piece again. He says he's ready to leave for Cairo, and he wants you and Nancy to join him."

However, Adam didn't feel right just leaving it at that, for more than one reason. In the end, he knew that he had to ask at least one more question.

"Whatever happened to the Gill-man?"

Dobson didn't look terribly happy with that question, but she eventually replied calmly enough.

"We have a history, but don't worry about it. Just let me deal with him. You can do your part in the meantime."

Adam nodded slowly in reply. He would have preferred to know more, but if Dobson thought she could handle it, then he wasn't about to question her. However, he did have one last thing to say.

"Thank you."

"Hmmm?" Dobson asked, looking almost as if she had no idea why she was being thanked, but eventually, she shrugged tactlessly and replied, "Well, if you really want to thank me, you can give me a blood sample before you go. That or finish the poem."

The request had probably been meant as a joke, but after what she'd done for him, Adam felt obligated to take it seriously. Both of those were personal requests, of course, but, Adam felt, one was more personal than the other.

"If you can take your sample quickly, I won't object." Adam conceded at last, drawing an almost ecstatic smile from Dobson, as she put down the scalpel she'd been holding, so that only the needle was left in her hands.

* * *

Apparently, the very large rooms that Adam had seen when he'd first arrived in Lord Dracula's mansion were all on the first floor. A series of staircases near the edges of the house led up a good forty-seven feet, to the second level of the mansion, where everything was more normal-sized. It was almost as if Dracula had been planning for that day for years; hoping to gather them all into one place at some time in the future, and Adam was starting to wonder just why he hadn't done it sooner. Perhaps he hadn't wanted to draw attention to himself until the stakes were high enough, but then again, no one had ever accused him of being a hero. His aims were nearly always self-serving. Still, Adam knew that if Dracula ever tried to use his new army against mankind, over half of its members would walk right out the front door, and the vampire lord must have realized that too. No; his plan for them was probably a bit more complicated than that.

Once he arrived on the second level of the mansion, however, Adam started to notice something that made him feel uneasy. There were people up there; all dressed in fine clothes. Some looked like butlers, and others, like maids, but all of them seemed to be servants, and Adam almost thought that he recognized some of them. One was a black-haired woman in early middle-age, another a brown-haired man of almost exactly the same age as the woman. Then there was a young, black man with flat hair on top of his head, and so on. However, all of them had a few things in common. For one thing, not one of them spoke, and they all seemed to be dazed, as if Dracula had placed every last one of them into a trance. However, that was a worrying thought by itself. Even considering his powers, Dracula had never been able to control that many people at once, back when Adam had known him. A few, perhaps, but not all of the people he saw there. It was as if the vampire's powers had continued to increase over the last hundred years. However, Adam couldn't be sure about anything when it came to him.

Soon, he'd arrived at the door that he'd been directed to; a thick, wooden door, with a brass handle, and turning it gently, he stepped inside, to see that Dracula was in the room, just as he'd said he would be. Still, Adam never felt right talking to him, no matter how many times he did it.

"I'm pleased to see that you're whole again, Adam." Dracula remarked, putting down a book that he'd been reading as Adam Frankenstein stepped into the room, "I also heard that the Gill-man has been secured. Well done."

"I don't think he's going to help us." Adam replied, almost hoping to rain on the older monster's parade, but the vampire just waved the worry off.

"You may leave that to Dobson. She knows him better than either of us. Besides, we have more preparations to make in the meantime."

"Cairo." Adam remembered aloud, drawing another nod from Dracula.

"I will be taking Nancy and yourself." the vampire lord explained, "I thought of taking Dobson as well, but she obviously has other things to occupy herself with at present."

Adam just nodded, not sure what else to say. It almost seemed as if Dracula wasn't angry at Adam anymore, for revealing his real identity. Of course, Adam knew better than that. The anger of a vampire was not dispelled so easily. Still, Dracula continued to speak, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"I wanted to bring you along on this venture, because I'm hoping to make you understand why I'm willing to go to these lengths. After all, there's no telling what kind of power our new enemy will weild, but we know it's capable of devastating military forces."

"Any one of us could do that." Adam pointed out, recalling his own recent victory over the Gill-man, but Dracula's expression still looked very severe when he replied.

"True, but if our next recruit refuses to cooperate, the danger could be very real; even for us. On top of that, I have never met personally him before, and I know precious little about his motives or personality. All I know for certain is that he is guilty of the cold-blooded murder of over a dozen people, and has enslaved even more people than I have. It is quite plain that he respects neither the body nor the will of man, and his powers are undeniable. Were it not for the fact that my own powers have also grown greatly in recent years, I don't think I would even have considered recruiting him."

"There was one thing I wanted to ask you, with respect to that." Adam said, however, jarring the vampire out of his seeming reverie, "Those people in the hallways... your new servants... Who are they?"

Dracula looked a bit perturbed for a moment, but eventually, he just waved the question aside with a vague response, most likely not caring who they were anymore, if he ever had.

"Old enemies with weak wills or poor morals. They fell prey to my talent for hypnosis during the days when I experimented with my powers, in an attempt to refine them, not more than a decade ago. They live their lives in hypnotic trance now; borne under countless delusions of false lives, constructed from the most absurd lies, which they live out in their thoughts. In the meantime, their bodies do as I tell them. It might amuse you to hear of some of the lies that these people believed while under my power. The thought that I was more than two millenia old, the thought that one of them was descended from Van Helsing, the thought that one of them had replaced me as lord of the vampires, and so on... Transparent lies to any person in their right mind, but without a strong will and a moral heart to resist my power, men and women alike will believe anything."

That thought deeply bothered Adam Frankenstein, not merely because he'd gradually learned respect for human free will, but because he knew that Lord Dracula had no such respect at all, and probably wouldn't have hesitated to use that gruesome power on him as well, if only his will had been less powerful, or his heart less chastened by his own past sins. It was sobering to think of Dracula pulling the strings of his own life; manipulating him like a helpless puppet, totally unable to even recognize it's master's existence. Adam felt like challenging Dracula then and there, demanding that he release those people from his spell, but in reality, he knew it wouldn't do any good. Causing dissention in their group when the alien threat still hung over their heads was a recipe for disaster, but, Adam promised himself, if they ever overcame that threat, he'd do everything in his power to see those people liberated from their years-long enslavement.

"At any rate, I hear you've made a full recovery, so I hope it will not take too much longer before you're ready to leave for Cairo." Dracula continued almost carelessly, though still a bit stiffly, reflecting the upper-class tradition he'd been raised in as a child, "I am planning to leave within five minutes, and I'd like to depart from the same spot we arrived at before. Be ready."

Adam wasn't exactly accustomed to taking orders, but he wasn't chagrined by it either. Still, though he accepted Dracula's commands readily enough for the time being, he knew that he had to keep his eyes open too, and continue to watch the vampire carefully.

* * *

Barry had had mixed feelings since he'd first arrived at Dracula's base. He'd been worried at first, although surviving a very long fall had made him feel almost fearless by the time he was shown his rooms. The problem was that although being among those monsters was a refreshing experience in some ways, and even relieving, it was also a terrible sacrifice, and with Adam going on two separate missions in a row, it didn't seem likely that he'd have much time to talk with Barry about how he was feeling.

For a couple of hours, the young werewolf had prowled around the hallways of the base, looking for something to do, or somebody to talk to, who he could trust, but he certainly didn't think Dobson was personable enough, and Kong was out of the question. Dracula, like Adam Frankenstein, always seemed to be busy, and that just left Nancy, who Barry had a hard time with. It might have just been the animal instincts inside of him, but somehow, being in the presence of such a large and powerful-looking being, even if she was just an ordinary woman aside from that, made him feel a bit skittish and defensive. Besides, even before his werewolf urges had started coming out, Barry had always had a hard time talking to girls, and in a way, that was part of the problem. Still, after over two hours of waiting, and after learning that talking to Adam wasn't likely to be an option, Barry realized that he didn't really have a choice anymore. It was Nancy or nothing.

Once he'd made that decision, it didn't take long for Barry Hammerson to track Nancy down. After all, the base was big, but it was hard to hide a fifty-foot woman effectively, and he eventually found her in the common room, dressed in an army uniform and looking very contemplative for a colonel. She seemed to have a book between her left thumb and forefinger, and was squinting at it a little bit, as if doing her best to read the tiny print, and she was seated on one side of a deep red couch, which was just as big, proportionately, as she was. She didn't react as if she'd noticed Barry come in, but, he suspected, she was probably just being subtle. Dracula had already told him that her hearing was a great deal better than any ordinary person's, and might even have been superior to his own. Barry had a strong impulse to react in offense, as if she'd meant to ignore him, but in his mind, he knew it would have been the wrong approach, and fought that urge with all the strength he could muster as he closed the large, metal door of the common room behind himself, still marveling at his own physical strength.

For a few moments, Barry just stood there, staring at Nancy Archer's boots and hoping to be noticed, or asked what was wrong, but somehow, Nancy seemed distracted. Once again, Barry had to fight down the urge to snap at her for no reason, but he did eventually succeed in doing that, deciding that it would be best to just address her himself, and hope that she didn't blow up at him, and tempt him into responding.

"Uh... Hey, Colonel?"

The moment Barry asked that question, Nancy looked up from her book, almost snapping to attention; a testament to her background with the United States military. She seemed a little unnerved by the interruption, but she didn't look offended or upset. In fact, once she saw who'd interrupted her, she gave Barry a friendly smile, and he started to feel a little embarrassed about the way he'd been feeling recently.

"Hmmm... Hammerson, was it? Bernie Hammerson?"

"Barry." the young man replied, stifling the urge to bite her for forgetting his name.

"Barry; that's it." Nancy noticed with a pleased smile, "You're Adam's friend, right?"

Really, though, Barry had a hard time answering that question. He saw Adam as a connection to the world that still made sense; a means to harness his cruel passions, and prevent them from hurting others, and Adam clearly cared at least somewhat about him, but calling them friends might have been premature. In the end, the only reply that Barry could think to give was a haughty-sounding "if he's lucky," which he felt like kicking himself for at almost the very moment he'd said it. Still, he couldn't exactly take those words back, so he just tried to speak to her a bit more carefully a moment later.

"Um... I know it's weird, since we've never really talked before, but... um..."

Nancy did look a little upset by Barry's last reply, but it seemed like she was doing her best to keep smiling as she talked to him, and more importantly, she apparently understood his dilemma.

"You need somebody to talk to, and Adam's not around." Nancy observed sadly, "I'd love to help, but I have a mission in just a few minutes, and..."

"This... this won't take long." Barry insisted, though he was already steaming inside, "I just wanted to ask you about one thing..."

Nancy looked a bit uncomfortable with the idea, but she quickly nodded, closing the book and putting it down on one of her legs, then leaning over until her face was almost directly over Barry's, and he found himself looking straight up, which made him dizzy. Still, he didn't want to waste time climbing onto the couch, and didn't want to look weak in front of Nancy either, so instead, he decided to just hold down his nausea, and ask his question as quickly as possible.

"Well, Nancy, it's... I mean, Colonel, I'm... Look, I've had a hard time giving up... I mean... everyone, and you must have... I'm just saying we're a lot alike, okay?"

Predictably, Nancy didn't look too impressed by how Barry had phrased that, but she at least seemed to understand what he was talking about. Soon, she was starting to look a bit sad, and unfortunately, when she spoke again, her words were no comfort to Barry at all.

"Barry... I think things are going to be very hard for you; harder than they ever were for me. There was a period of adjustment in my case, of course, where I had to learn to cope with the fact that I'd have to leave my old life behind; all my old friends. Sally, Nick, Janie... I'd never see my next door neighbor again. That bugged me, even though all she ever did was complain about the late hours I'd get home at, and the noise my friends and I made... I'd never see my postman again. That bugged me too, even though I usually had a hangover to worry about half the times he showed up. My folks... I don't know why, but I missed them too. Still, once I'd realized that I couldn't go back to the way things used to be, it really helped. The army became my family, and I've still got some really great friends in bunker thirty-two. Leaving them behind isn't easy, but I figure once this mission's over, I can just go right back to them. You, though... Your situation's different."

Barry swallowed when he heard Nancy say that. He was pretty sure that he knew what was coming next, but fortunately, it seemed as if Nancy wasn't going to say much else about his situation, or what he was likely to face in the future. After all, she must have realized, he knew more about that than she did, and in a moment, almost those very words came out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Barry. I'd really like to help you, but as silly as this might sound, your problem is bigger than mine, and I don't really think I'm qualified to even comfort you about it."

For some reason, however, those words didn't really offend Barry or upset him, which was a rare phenomenon. He didn't feel much better, but he also didn't really feel worse. He wasn't really sure he'd accomplished anything by talking to Nancy, but at the very least, it had been nice to have someone to talk to, even if the whole talk had ended right where it had begun.

In just another moment, Nancy had stood up to her full height, then taking just a few seconds to place her book on a table nearby on the ground, she opened the common room door, and with a simple "bye," she left through it, her loud, booming footsteps receding down the hallway, and Barry wasn't sure what to think or feel, though he had to admit that it was still something of an improvement.

* * *

"You have some nerve, Dobson."

"Yes, I suppose I do." Dobson admitted, removing her lab coat for the first time in days, as she spoke to the Gill-man through the custom transparency that she'd designed to hold him. The tank beyond was full of water, but bubbles would occasionally rise from the bottom of it, as the micro-organisms in the tank produced enough air to support the lives of fish, or of Gill-men. It was a micro-ecosystem of her own design; far superior to any simple fish tank or aquarium of any size. Still, the Gill-man showed no signs of appreciating her hard work, and even looked like he was going to try to punch his way out a moment later, so Dobson knew she'd have to say something.

"You're a puzzle to me, and I'm eager to learn the truth about you. I've never shied away from a challenging mystery, and you're quite mysterious. Of course, I know some of what happened between you and my grandmother, but as near as I can tell, it was really you who started that. I'm not really sure why you're so upset."

"G-grandmother?" the Gill-man asked, looking very confused for just a moment, and stopping his fist before it could hit the transparency, "What are you talking about, Helen?"

"Well..." Dobson replied, "I hate to be the one to break this to you, but my name's Stephanie. Helen Dobson was my grandmother."

At that point, the Gill-man started to relax just a little, drawing both arms back away from the transparency, and then she heard his voice again, though with more of a gurgling overtone than a hissing one.

"Your hair's a different color, and the glasses are new. However, your eyes are the same as hers. Your chin is the same, your cheeks, your lips, ears... everything... I just thought you were wearing a false nose at first."

Dobson paused for a moment when the Gill-man said that. and for the first time, she almost felt a bit ashamed of what she'd done to her own appearance, but still not quite.

"The nose was my own design, and I've made invisible alterations to other parts of myself as well, for practical reasons..." Dobson admitted, but when she said that, the Gill-man seemed to calm down even more, leaning back in his tank and looking straight up, as if expecting to be able to see the clouds through the tank ceiling. At last, he said something that, even for Dobson, shed some light on the situation they were both in.

"I felt betrayed the last time I saw Helen; after what she did to me. I remember two people more than any others, and Helen was one of them. I suppose you don't know much about me at all, though."

"No." Stephanie admitted sadly, "Like I said, you're a mystery, but I really want to learn about you. I mean, I never realized you'd grown so intelligent or quick-witted, and I'm still not sure why you were mad at my grandmother."

For a moment, the Gill-man just watched Stephanie Dobson carefully, as if trying to determine whether she was telling the truth or not, but at last, he said "Alright. I'll tell you everything, but in exchange, I want you to promise that you'll release me from this tank without a struggle once I'm done with my story. No tricks, alright?"

"Alright." Dobson replied, "No tricks, but I need you to promise that once you're out, you won't try to injure anyone else around here, including me, and that you'll listen to a request of mine. You can agree to my request, or not after that. Just listen to it all the way through."

The Gill-man still looked a bit suspicious, but at last, he said "Yes. That's fair," and began his story a moment later.

"For most of my life, I was no more intelligent than an average water mammal. I had some ability to make calculations, but no imagination or real awareness. I can't even really remember what my life was like back then, but that may be normal when a person grows in intelligence; they simply forget what life was like before. Humans, for example, don't remember their earliest years, when they were babies. I do recall having met Helen at least once before gaining intelligence, but I can't remember the circumstances, or what I did, or even what happened to her. It's all a blur to me."

"Anyway, my earliest memories were of a doctor named William Barton. He seemed like he wanted to help me, in certain ways. He tried to bring out my human side; coaxing my mind towards a more human intelligence, until I was less instinct-based. He also tried to take apart my scaley hide, to make me look more human as well. In fact, it almost seemed as if he was training me to be a man. However, at the last moment, Barton betrayed me, and I killed him. I don't remember all the specifics, but I believe there were at least two crimes involved, one of which was murder."

"After that, I fled to the ocean, but it didn't take long before someone tracked me down again, and sure enough, it was Helen Dobson, having earned a doctorate in biology. She was furious with me for some reason, but instead of trying to harm me physically, she carried on Barton's experiments, focusing on my developing intelligence, as she allowed my scales to grow back. At last, I had about the intelligence of a ten-year-old, and Dobson seemed satisfied with her work, releasing me back into the ocean."

"It was only once I was back in the water that I realized what a terrible thing Helen had done to me. My appearance made it impossible for me to join human society, and my intelligence made it difficult for me to accustom myself to underwater life again. I could eat fish, fight sharks, build an underwater home for myself and so on, but I didn't have a single intelligent person to share it all with; my enhanced brain craved worthy companionship, and I couldn't find it. Dobson had given me a fate worse than death; she'd given me the all-consuming craving for something that I could never possess."

"I'm not sure how long it took before I started looking for Helen again, but I was furious with her by that point, and I wanted her dead. I tore across continents, and searched cities, and I killed more than once, trying to get her to come out of hiding, but the truth is that the world is a big place, and she may not even have been hiding at all. It was possible that she just hadn't heard about what I'd been doing, until we finally met in person one last time."

"I eventually met someone who'd heard the name "Helen Dobson," and I ran across three states to reach her, but by the time I tracked her down, she'd surrounded herself with weapons, like nothing I'd ever seen before. We fought for nearly an hour, but as powerful as she'd grown, the intelligence that she'd given me allowed me to react to every move she made, and design tactics of my own, and my strength was more than a match for her weapons. Finally, she trapped me in a tank, not unlike this one, and told me that I had no reason to be angry with her, because she'd done nothing but give me a marvelous gift, but that what I'd done was unforgivable."

"Helen accused me of killing one of her dearest relatives, and injuring another, and I couldn't deny it. I just wasn't used to thinking in those terms, and when she said that she was going to kill me for what I'd done, I told her why I'd been hunting for her; that unless I could be a man, intelligence was a burden. She didn't seem to appreciate my words. She said that intelligence was the best part of life, and that I was just an ungrateful brute. I broke out of the tank just a moment later, but she managed to escape me, and I never saw her again. I have no idea what she did with the rest of her life. Despite her threats to me that day, she never made another attempt to kill me, as far as I can tell."

However, Stephanie was already starting to feel a bit sad as the Gill-man finished his tale, because she knew that the story he'd just told her had a very bittersweet ending.

"You're wrong." Stephanie Dobson replied, "Grandma never did anything else with her life after that. She spent the rest of her days researching you, and trying to develop a sure fire means of killing you. She committed herself to it; obsessed over it. Eventually, she threw everything else away. Her husband stopped loving her, her friends were afraid of her, and even her old connections in the scientific community didn't want to speak to her anymore. Even her only son refused to speak to her. She was a reclusive and tragic figure. She could have done tremendous good for the world, if she hadn't been so obsessed with you."

"You can't pin the blame for that on me." the Gill-man remarked, though he actually did sound as if the news about Helen's fate had made him feel a bit sad. However, at that point, Stephanie genuinely smiled; a wild-eyed smile, that seemed to even worry her guest.

"Blame you?" Dobson asked, grinning from ear to ear, "Why would I want to blame you? If it wasn't for you, I'd probably just be some no-name, poverty-stricken, art school student. Grandma's obsession may have destroyed her, but it did me a world of good."

As usual, the Gill-man's fish-like expression was almost completely unreadable, but he seemed as if he was either disgusted or elated by what Dobson had just said, so she continued.

"When I was eight, I was really into art, and I wanted to be a painter. My dad really supported me, but he died falling off a ladder, and I wound up being cared for by my only other living relative."

"Helen." the Gill-man observed, releasing a few more bubbles into the tank as he spoke, and drawing a confirming nod from Doctor Dobson.

"The very first evening that I spent in her house, she hooked me up to a machine, and studied the structure of my brain." Stephanie explained, still grinning broadly as she explained her past, "I was a little scared at first, but more curious than worried, and when grandma was done, she told me that there was no way I could ever be a painter, and that I should give up on it immediately."

"At first, I didn't want to accept what grandma had said, but the more time passed, the more I started to realize that she'd been right. I couldn't seem to handle a brush properly, and the paints all mixed together into a mess whenever I tried to paint anything. I tried sketching one or two things later on, and I had a lot more luck with that, but I just couldn't see a future for myself as a sketch artist. Eventually, I gave in, and when I was ten, I asked grandma to help me figure out what to do with my life."

"Grandma taught me everything she knew after that; all about the human brain, about the way the body worked; about biology and cybernetics; all the secrets of science that she'd learned, and about the history of other great, eccentric scientists who'd come before her; Nikola Tesla, Victor Frankenstein, Jack Griffin, Henry Jekyll, Andre Delambre... All of them uncovered fantastic secrets of science and biology, and yet, almost all of those secrets seemed to be lost. She told me that it was a great shame, because if only those discoveries could all be gathered, whoever managed to acquire them all would be one of the most powerful people in the world. From the day she told me that, I knew what my purpose in life was."

"Once I'd learned everything that grandma had to teach me, I spent years chasing after those lost secrets of science, and it took me a while, but I managed to find them. I even found some of the original notes on the various formulas and discoveries that they'd each made. They were all brilliant men, and yet somehow, I knew that I could take their sciences further than they ever had; I could make them work in ways that they'd never even considered. I was eighteen when I made that evaluation, and since then, I've managed to accomplish quite a bit. I still have a lot more research to do on some readings a got recently from a Mr. Torrance, who seemed to be a psychic, but right now, it's... Well, you probably don't care about my research projects. I'll let you out now."

Soon, Dobson had moved over to a dial on the other side of the room, and started turning it slowly. As she did so, there was the sound of some kind of mechanical device within the walls, clanking away, and soon, the water started draining out of the tank, and the transparency began to lower, giving the Gill-man his chance to climb out of that transparent prison. For a moment, it looked like he was struggling with the urge to strangle Dobson, in spite of his promise to not harm her, but fortunately, he won that struggle, and even managed to keep his other promise as well.

"Now, what was your request?" the Gill-man asked, still looking very upset with Dobson. However, he did, at least, seem to be listening to her, so she made the request that she'd been asked to make.

"Recently, something happened to the world's electricity, and we think that an alien power is probably at fault." Dobson explained, "If we're right about this, then they'll come to Earth very soon, and try to destroy us all with powerful weapons. Since you've proven, in the past, that your body is a stronger weapon than most tanks, I think you'd be a big help against this threat. We've been gathering gifted and powerful people from all over the world, to try to assemble some kind of defense against them, and... Well, if these aliens come here, they might destroy the entire planet. That would be just as bad for you as for the rest of us."

The Gill-man looked suspicious as he listened to Dobson's request, but he also seemed to be taking it seriously, and soon, he opened his mouth again, and in that hissing voice of his, he responded to her...


	8. Chapter 8: Cairo and Tokyo

Chapter 8: Cairo and Tokyo

* * *

Adam had never been to Cairo before, but he had seen pictures of it during his early years; studying human civilization, and yet, when the horizon changed in front of him, revealing the Egyptian city, he could barely believe just how little it looked like the pictures he'd seen, about a hundred years before.

Of course, there was no mistaking Cairo for a European city like London, due to the very different type of architecture, and the way the land looked, but its buildings were a lot taller than they'd been a mere century before, and its streets were crowded and sturdy. In fact, the one that Adam had emerged onto was made from bricks; a rare sight even in the major cities of Europe and the Americas.

Of course, as crowded as the streets were, it seemed that no one had expected an entrance like the sort that the three monsters had made. For about a minute and a half, Dracula, Frankenstein and Archer had virtually cut the entire city in two, and even though things would go back to the way they'd been shortly, it was still causing a huge disturbance; especially once people realized that a giantess had stepped onto the soil of their town. Next to her, Adam was relieved to see, most people didn't pay any attention to him, and almost no one seemed to think twice about Dracula. Of course, Adam had a feeling that that still wasn't the end of their trip. As the people fled down streets and into houses, Adam Frankenstein decided that there was no point in playing dumb anymore, and asked Dracula the question that had been running through his mind ever since he'd first learned that Cairo was their intended destination.

"Do you really know the location of Hamunaptra?"

Dracula's eyebrows rose a bit when he heard that question, but soon, he dug something else out of his coat, handing it to Adam, who took it in amazement. It looked like a worn, old piece of cloth, with a series of symbols on it, which Adam didn't recognize. After a moment, though, he just handed the cloth back to Dracula, not really sure what to make of it, and hoping that the vampire would give him some sort of explanation to go with the strange bit of fabric.

"Hamunaptra is a cursed city, and it has been for some time now. Reaching it requires more than just a location on a map. There are two ways to get there, and one of them is impossible for us."

"Why?"

"Because if a party of people have someone with them who's been to the city before, reaching it will be easy. However, right now, we don't have anyone like that. In fact, I don't think there's anyone left alive who fits those criteria."

That all seemed to make sense, Adam thought, so there was only one question left to be asked.

"In that case, what do we need to do?"

"Well, you and I will need something to ride it, so that we can reach the city in time. Nancy can keep up on foot, I think. There's also a river to cross. I know I can count on you to assist me with that. Then, once we reach the stretch of the desert, out of sight of the river to the south, we wait for the sign of Hamunaptra to appear. We shouldn't be waiting long, if we can get there soon."

"I see. Then there's only one problem remaining. How exactly are we going to convince any of these people to give us mounts?"

"With money, naturally."

"I mean, how do you plan on getting them to listen to us, when they're clearly so terrified?"

Adam had at least expected Dracula to act surprised or disappointed when that hole in his plan was pointed out, but he just seemed amused when he was asked that question, and finally, he responded to it, still looking completely confident.

"Adam, I have agents in this city."

"Agents? Where?"

"Well, just look all around you. Every man, every woman, ever child you can see... These are my agents, Adam."

When Adam heard that, a new chill started to travel through him, because he suspected that he knew that Lord Dracula was saying, and he didn't like the sound of those words at all.

"You don't mean?"

"Why not? As you said, they won't help us otherwise, and you know that none of them can resist me. Many of them have weak wills, and countless others are corrupt of heart. The people of cities like this one are virtually my possessions."

Adam was starting to grind his teeth together as he thought about what Dracula was proposing. He certainly seemed to have gotten very hypnosis-happy since the last time they'd met, and yet, there was some truth to what he was saying; it was difficult to imagine anyone giving Adam or Nancy any large animals to ride on. Still, he thought, there had to be some other way.

"Why don't we just have Nancy carry us?" Adam asked, hoping to route Dracula's plans, for once, but the vampire, he was pleased to see, didn't seem to mind that idea.

"The entire way? Well, I'll accept that if Nancy will. Do you care for that idea, Nancy?"

Adam was praying silently as he looked up into the face of the giantess who'd come with them, but fortunately, she was still smiling.

"Alright. That's fine with me. I just hope I don't get tired or thirsty on the way there. It is a desert, after all."

Adam nearly sighed when he realized that he'd kept Dracula from carrying out his evil plan, but as relieved as Frankenstein's creation was, the change in the plan didn't seem to bother Dracula at all. In fact, he looked as if he'd barely given it a second thought, and even seemed to be brightening up, as if something about the whole affair had reassured him. Adam Frankenstein couldn't help but be worried by that, even as he prepared for the trip to the city of the dead.

* * *

Sure enough, the trip across the desert, to the abandoned, cursed city had been relatively brief, and Dracula looked just as confident as ever, as he moved among the ancient bricks and ruined sculptures, finally reaching a large door, made of the same substance as the surrounding bricks, and to Adam's surprise, the vampire drove his fist through it in only a second, putting cracks in the whole door from top to bottom. Then, he pulled his hand back out of the door, with equally great force and speed, and just like that, the shards of hardened mud scattered across the ground behind him, clearing the doorway almost completely, and leaving plenty of room for he and Adam to enter the long, underground hallway beyond. Adam had to admit that he was impressed by the vampire's physical strength, and the skill with which he weilded it, but it also worried him a little, because he was beginning to get the feeling that Dracula had used that kind of attack on more than one tomb door.

"I'll go in with Adam," Dracula said, turning to face Nancy again for a moment, "but this shouldn't take long. However, if you start to feel the ground shaking, or any other kind of natural disaster, stand on top of one of these brick buildings, and try not to be seen. We'll do our best to keep things under control, but there's a chance that this might grow ugly."

Nancy just nodded, really looking more confused than worried. It seemed that she'd never heard of Hamunaptra before, and didn't know much of anything about its history. However, Adam had heard all the old stories about it; just what had been awoken in that place during the ninteen-twenties, then again, eleven years later, and why Dracula was warning her about it. As much as he'd grown recently, and as great as his recent victories had been, Adam had to admit that he couldn't completely eradicate his own worries about that place. Still, he wasn't going to cower from it either. He knew that he had to see things through, to the very end, so a moment later, when Dracula entered that ancient tomb, Adam followed quickly behind.

* * *

The tomb was almost pitch black inside, and Adam was having a very difficult time seeing where he was going at first. He knew that he needed some time for his eyes to adjust, but at the same time, Dracula didn't seem to be having any such difficulties. It made sense, of course. Traditionally, it was understood that vampires could see just fine in the dark. Still, Adam was as worried about that as about the being that they were about to unleash. It meant that Dracula had yet another advantage over him; another disquieting thought.

Adam felt like he'd been following the vampire through those tunnels for almost an hour, but at last, the rough, sandy stones and bricks all around them started turning into clean, smooth ones, as if the bricks of those walls had never been touched by a sandstorm, or at least, as if they'd been recently cleaned by some mysterious means, and only a few more yards ahead, the hall they were in opened out, revealing a large chamber beyond. As soon as they reached that chamber, Adam swallowed hard, because he recognized a number of things about it, from old stories.

Every last wall of that chamber seemed to be made the same way; from large slabs of brick, about the same size and consistency as the door that Dracula had just plowed through, which meant that any number of those walls might secretly be doors. Along one side of the room was a pit with some kind of dark liquid in it, which looked like a cross between tar and wet paint, and in the middle of the room was a large, raised slab of stone; apparently a sacrificial altar of some kind, since it was about the right size and shape for a person to be stretched out on in some barbaric ritual of human sacrifice.

The only other major feature of the chamber, aside from a few pillars, scattered throughout it, was a staircase, which stretched up, along one side of the chamber, towards what looked like some kind of circular doorway; about large enough to accomidate even a person of Adam's height. However, the doorway at the top of the stairs didn't seem to lead anywhere, just ending at a plain, brick slab, like every other wall in the place.

Adam found the whole room disturbing, because he'd heard about some of what had gone on there. However, Dracula looked more eager than scared. In fact, he was soon pulling a thick, black book made of something solid out of his coat, along with a very ancient-looking scroll, and Adam could tell, to his own dismay, that the vampire lord was about to cast some kind of spell. Adam knew that he couldn't really stop him, if the vampire was willing to go to those lengths, but he did at least have one more question that he wanted to ask.

"I assume you're here for Imhotep," Adam said, looking at the vampire in concern as he spoke, "but I don't think you have the whole story. Imhotep isn't here anymore."

"Yes, I know." Dracula replied, "His body was removed from this place a short time after his third death. Then, he was restored to life again, and after a few more escapades, he disappeared completely, and hasn't been seen since. However, there's one other thing that I found interesting."

Adam continued listening carefully, as Dracula talked about the research that he'd done; research which, it seemed, had been even more extensive than Adam's.

"I discovered that in this place, before his third resurrection, Imhotep was robbed of his powers by some sort of spell; a form of Egyptian incantation, which caused the spirits within this chamber to rise up and steal from him the powers which had once made him invincible. The question that I asked myself, then, was where they took those powers, and what would happen if they were ever brought back, without access to the body which once housed them."

Adam swallowed again, as he started to understand Dracula's plan. As he'd said, it sounded like a very hazardous idea, but still, Adam couldn't stop him. It was too late for that, because the vampire was already opening the large black book in his hands, and reciting an incantation nearly as old as civilization itself.

"Amun Ra. Amun Dei. Suoi-ah harum ortu sinmus ibbet biah. Imhotep insu pikkei setsuei yatuei, yatuei, yatuei..."

As Dracula spoke those words, Adam could feel something vile all around him; something that refused to accept the natural order of life and death. He'd been a bit nervous for most of the trip, and he'd nearly finished the small canteen of water that he'd brought with him, but at that point, he had a feeling that he'd better finish the rest, because Dracula was pulling an ancient scroll out of a case that he'd been holding under his arm, slowly, he placed the Book of the Dead on the floor, opening the scroll, and spoke more words, which Adam had never heard before. They sounded just as ancient and primal as the last words he'd read from the book, and seemed to continue where the book's incantation had left off, as if they'd always been intended to be read together.

Adam realized at once what the scroll was; a copy of the ancient Scroll of Thoth, which, according to legend, passed a new judgment on the fate of one who'd already died. At least once, Adam knew, the scroll had brought Imhotep back to life under its own power. He continued to drink from the canteen nervously as he watched the unholy ritual take place before his eyes, and at long last, at the very moment when Dracula finished his spell, Adam dropped the drink to the floor of the chamber in alarm.

The clunk of the canteen hitting the floor echoed through the entire chamber, and at first, Dracula spun to face Adam, looking furious, but both of their expressions changed when they looked at the ground, where the canteen lay. There had only been a few drops left in it, which were dripping out onto the floor of the chamber, but as they both watched in amazement, those drops were turning a deep red.

Quickly, the eyes of both Dracula and Adam scanned the room, looking for any sign of the ancient being, but it didn't take them long to notice the person in the room with them; the one who hadn't been there before. However, they'd both expected some kind of horrible, disfigured sight, or at least an intimidating figure, standing upright. The being in front of them seemed both more and less powerful than they'd expected him to be.

He was a tall man, though about a head shorter than Adam, with a bald head and a long robe. There were wrinkles of some sort underneath his eyes, and along his cheeks, making him look as if he were in his early fifties, and he wore thick sandals of a very old design on his feet. However, he wasn't even standing up. Imhotep was seated on the top stairs within that room, just in front of the large, circular doorway, and he didn't seem to have much color in his face, but he did look basically human, and alive; surprisingly healthy for a mummy who'd been ressurected numerous times, but compared to an ordinary human, his pale color and the dreary look he had about him made him look as if he was suffering from pneumonia. Even Dracula seemed to doubt, at first, that the incantation had really been successful.

"Are you Imhotep?" Dracula asked aloud, starting to climb the stairs to where the restored mummy sat, but for some reason, the new arrival didn't reply to that question. It was almost as if he hadn't even heard it. In fact, Dracula had nearly reached the very top of the steps before he got any kind of reaction from the mummy at all, and that was merely a raising of his head in response to Dracula's presence, looking the vampire in the eye.

"Have you merely forgotten how to speak my language, after all these years?" Dracula asked Imhotep, returning his stare, "During your later escapades, you pretended to speak only Egyptian, but I know that you learned English as well, over the course of ten years among the living, beginning in nineteen-twenty-two. I don't care why you refused to speak it among lesser mortals, but I ask that you speak it to me, at least."

However, when Imhotep did speak just a moment later, his words weren't anything like what Adam had been expecting to hear, and even Dracula looked surprised.

"Leave me alone."

It took Dracula several moments before he spoke again, because, like Adam, he didn't seem to understand just what was wrong with Imhotep, or why he was acting that way. Imhotep had always been twisted and evil; even for a monster, but lethargy was one trait he'd never seemed to possess before.

"Why?" Dracula asked, "Do you really want to stay here forever? Isn't there something you'd prefer to be doing?"

"No. Begone."

"Then there's nothing I can say to change your mind? No danger I can bring to your attention? No offer I can make to you?"

However, for a moment, that seemed to have brought some color back to the mummy's face. Quickly, he got to his feet and began to glare at Dracula angrily. He spoke with a strong accent, but he did seem to have mastered English when he replied a moment later.

"Danger? I have been dead for hundreds of years? What danger would I care about? Offer? Can you offer me a remedy for the time I've lost? I have nothing left in this world of yours; this time beyond the Egyptian empire; not anymore."

Dracula, however, didn't pause that time, because he seemed eager to learn more about the ancient Egyptian priest, and what he was really talking about.

"Is time really all that you've lost?"

However, by that point, Adam could see a glimmer of interest in Imhotep's eyes. He seemed to recognize that both Adam and Dracula were also un-dead, and it was, after all, human nature to enjoy talking about oneself. Apparently, even considering how long Imhotep had been dead, he still had that element of humanity within him.

"It seems so." Imhotep replied, still looking directly into Dracula's eyes with a bit of the great pride of near-royalty, which he'd once possessed so much of, "At one time, I was convinced that I had the chance for love, but... I was fooling myself. Anck-su-namun never truly loved me, and now, she has proven it."

That time, however, Dracula didn't need to say a thing. He merely continued to watch Imhotep carefully, waiting for the mummy to tell his tale.

"Long ago, I was the high priest of Egypt's Phaoroh; the highest servant, with the ear of the world's most powerful man, but as I had his ear, so also I heard the lamentations of his mistress; Anck-su-namun. She was quite young and beautiful; a precious flower of the ancient world, and tied for all time to a man twice her age. Though she would never let him see her discontent out of fear, I knew how she must have felt."

"Though I was not an heir in Phaoroh's household, she looked to me with hope. I do not know why. I was young, of course; almost as young as her, and I did hold a high office among the priests of the royal palace, whom I had earned the trust and loyalty of, through my talent and devotion at a young age. They would have followed me into the deepest realms."

"At last, I knew that Anck-su-namun truly wished to be with me, rather than the ruler of that land, and we met one night in his rooms. I sought her love, just as she sought mine, though whether I truly loved her is now difficult to say. I felt pity for her; suffering as she was under that older man, and in that pity, I soon found myself touching her; something which was not allowed. Any man who touched her was to be put to death, and soon, I was found out. Together, we struck down the phaoroh, but she was also killed in the process, and I fled from that place, to the city of the dead. It was against our laws to restore the dead to life, but I felt that if we could be together once more, it would be worth the risk."

"I was stopped by the guards of the phaoroh before I could complete the ceremony, and mummified in disgrace, with a terrible curse placed upon my head. However, I was indignant over my condemnation, and I refused to give in to those men, who, in my eyes, had made themselves my enemies. I suppose that since then, I've thought of nothing but overcoming the obstacles that placed themselves in my path, and reclaiming Anck-su-namun. I made several attempts, though none of them succeeded, and at last, a woman, who seemed to be Anck-su-namun brought me back from the grave herself. I never doubted it for a second. Somehow, she had acquired all that had once belonged to my beloved; her very personality, character and will, and all of her feelings for me. Still, with her before my very eyes, I could think of nothing but the defeat of my enemies, and we went abroad, in search of a power great enough to enforce my will, and protect her from all time."

"Unfortunately, the power that we found destroyed us both. Ancient magic was awoken in that place, and it threatened both of our lives. In that moment, when I was in danger of death, Anck-su-namun found herself with a choice; to flee for her life, or to risk it once more for the sake of our love."

"She fled." Dracula observed after Imhotep had spent a few seconds in grim silence, and in response, the mummy nodded.

"Even after all that we had endured together, even knowing that death was only the beginning, she chose her life over mine." Imhotep said miserably, and even Adam felt some pity for the ancient one when he heard that, "I had no choice but to realize the truth; that Anck-su-namun had never truly loved me. Always, and in everything, it had been fear, not love, that had driven her."

"She had been afraid to spend her life unhappily with an older man. She had been afraid that someone would force her into servitude again, which was why she clung to me; one of the most powerful men in Egypt. It was also why she restored me to life, and clung to me after that; she recognized the supernatural power that I possessed, and trusted it to protect her. When I lost my power in that ancient pyramid, I could already tell that something was different between us. She seemed colder to me, though still not eager to toss me aside. At last, however, when she left me in that pit, I realized the truth. I had never lost her love, because I had never possessed it. However, I had wasted my life seeking something that had never existed. Even one such as you cannot know what that truly means."

By that point, though, Dracula was smiling, because after all, he'd just been given a lot of new information about the mummy's history and personality, and it seemed that he had every intention of using that information to accomplish his own ends.

"You must dispise Anck-su-namun for using you in that manner."

"Her, and all beautiful things, that lead to nothing in the end." Imhotep replied.

"Was she not a wretched woman?" Dracula asked, looking as if he sympathized with Imhotep's predicament, but the ancient one merely nodded slowly in reply, as if not sure where the vampire was headed with those words.

"In that case, I believe you would do well to forget about her." Dracula advised him, turning to leave, "Whether you listen to me or not, it is a poor choice to give up on your own life because of one wicked woman, regardless of how long it took you to learn of her wickedness. She is gone now, and you are not."

Adam wasn't sure exactly what Dracula was planning at that point. The vampire continued to descend the stairs and reach the doorway to the hall they'd entered by, looking for all the world like he was just going to leave things like that, but soon, the mummy's voice was heard throughout the chamber again; much stronger than it had been before.

"Why did you come here? Why restore me to life? You must have known the danger it would place you in."

Dracula continued smiling, however, as he turned and responded to the ancient one's question.

"At this point, the planet Earth has suffered something of a disaster, and it looks as if the world itself might be destroyed very soon. I had hoped that you might be willing to assist me in preventing that. Your powers would most definitely prove useful."

However, Imhotep's expression darkened when Dracula said that, and he replied a bit stiffly to the request.

"In all the time I've lived, I have never done anything that did not benefit me in some way. I no longer feel that I can truly be benefitted by anything that I do, and yet... The need of every man for a purpose; a mission in life to keep them going cannot be overstated. Anck-su-namun was mine, and before her, my priestly duties. Now, both she and Egypt are gone, and neither purpose remains. Therefore, I must have a new purpose in life. I've never considered things in this manner before, but... What kind of threat is endangering the world?"

"An alien force from beyond the boundaries of our world." Dracula explained, hoping that his explanation would make sense to the old-world mindset of the ancient mummy. However, it seemed that Imhotep's perspective was going to make things a bit difficult, even if it did lead them to what they needed.

"After what has happened, I would find it difficult to trust another being." Imhotep explained a moment later, looking very grim as he spoke, "However, if I'm being asked to destroy an enemy; that is a mission that I can use. Afterwards, however, I offer no promises of loyalty."

"I expect none." Dracula replied, smiling broadly, "Our alliance is only against this one threat; nothing more."

* * *

After the initial negotiations with Imhotep had concluded, Dracula, Nancy and Adam had returned to London. By that point, only a few hours remained, so Dracula decided to head out again immediately. However, that time, he didn't offer to take anyone with him, and Adam was a bit worried about that, so just as Dracula was about to leave the mansion, Adam took him aside and started asking him questions.

"Where are you going now?"

"There is one other, who I feel might be the greatest prize of all, but I may not be able to acquire his help, depending on whether I can control him or not. It will certainly be impossible to reason with him, I fear. Still, there is potential there; a potential I can't ignore. Hopefully, if I leave immediately, I can learn the truth about him before time runs out."

"But why are you going alone? What do you plan to do, Dracula?"

"The reality is that none of you can really help me with this, and I am afraid that if my idea fails, it will be easier for me to escape alone." Dracula explained, "I should return in just an hour or two, but I might not return at all. In that case, you should lead the others against the aliens."

"Me? Why?"

"Because your brain was selected by Doctor Frankenstein for its ingenuity and superior speed and intelligence. No one else here can plan as you can." Dracula explained, opening the door, "However, don't take command until the alien timer has completely finished its countdown."

Then he left without saying another word, though there was a nasty commotion outside a few moments later, when he seemed to have used his transport device again.

* * *

Really, as little as Adam Frankenstein trusted Lord Dracula, he had been hoping that he wouldn't have to take command in a crisis as big as that one, and he wasn't sure how many of the others would respect him enough to follow his orders in battle. Still, he more or less understood what they were all capable of. His problems with the idea of command were more personal than strategic.

Fortunately, however, just as the last hour of the alien countdown was starting, there was another commotion from outside, and several seconds later, a large, black bat flew in one of the windows of the very room that Adam had been sitting in. As he watched in some discontent, the bat began changing before his very eyes, growing in size; its wings transforming, growing fingers, and its talons changing into boots. At last, the remainder of its wings had become a long, dark coat, and the squashed-looking bat snout and large, thin ears had changed as well, revealing the humanoid face of Lord Dracula once again, except that there was a difference.

Dracula's whole body seemed to almost be glowing from the very moment that he took human form again, and Adam wasn't sure why. It was as if he'd been using some kind of strange magic recently; some ability that Adam had never seen him use before. On top of that, there were dark patches here and there across his flesh, as if something had burned him somehow. Adam had seen fire used against vampires in battle before, but he hadn't expected Dracula to come back from his mission injured. He was just about to ask a couple questions about it, when Dracula spoke to him directly, looking a bit aggrivated.

"I'm afraid that only the eight of us will be fighting against this foe from space. There will be no more recruits."

Adam understood what that meant, of course. Even if Dracula had had more ideas for recruits, there wasn't time to gather them. The aliens would most likely begin their attack within the hour. Still, Adam felt that he should know a little more about the vampire's original plans.

"I know that you went to Tokyo just now," Adam began, "so it doesn't take a genius to figure out who you were after. The question is why? Why did you think you could draw him in, like you did with us?"

However, it was several seconds before Lord Dracula gave any kind of answer to that question.

"I made several miscalculations. You see, Adam, those with weak wills or impure hearts have been falling easily to my power for the last ten years or so. Though I knew it would be impossible to reason with Tokyo's greatest warrior, I suspected that I might be able to command him... Perhaps, as a brute animal, I thought, he might follow my orders, or if not, his heart's impurity might make him vulnerable to me. I made a mistake, however. I don't know what he is, but he is no mere animal. All of my attempts to control him were meaningless. He has a strong spirit, Adam; not unlike the man I was in life. In fact, I suspect that spirit is the very reason for his many victories in the past, even more than his size or power. Still, he's resisted me. I don't expect any help from him in the future."

For a moment, Adam was just about to leave it at that, getting to his feet and heading to the doorway out, but at the last second, he turned back to face the vampire again, frowning deeply as he gave Lord Dracula one final reprimand.

"That was your mistake, Vlad. If you're as similar to him as you say, you might have won him over as a friend, but nobody likes being manipulated."

Then, with those words, Adam stepped outside, and closed the door behind him, leaving the resentful vampire alone.

* * *

Once again, Adam had descended into the lower sections of their base, watching the nearest wall clock counting down. They didn't have much time left, unfortunately, and they had absolutely no idea what form the alien attack would take. It was hardly a favorable situation, but then, they couldn't really do anything about that. It was the lot they'd wound up with, and they needed to find some way to make do, Adam thought.

However, as he was standing in the hallway, watching the clock and thinking to himself, he started to hear footsteps rushing towards him from very nearby. Quickly, he turned to see who it was, and was surprised, and a little disappointed, to find that it was Dobson. Her hair was a wild tangle, and her glasses were crooked, but she looked absolutely stunned, and there was a gleam in her eyes, as if she'd just discovered something truly miraculous. She looked a little out of breath by the time she reached Adam, though whether it was from the exertion, or some form of shock, he couldn't exactly tell. Soon, though, she'd straightened back up and looked up into his face, her broad, toothy grin returning, and when she started speaking, there was an eager energy there, which he hadn't really seen in her before.

"Adam..." Dobson said, still sounding out of breath as she spoke, "You... Wow. Your blood. I figured out how you charge... Oh, boy."

"Slow down." Adam said, feeling pretty upset with Dobson already, in spite of himself, "Did you perform some kind of experiment on my blood?"

"I wanted to find out how your body managed to channel electricity, without frying your synapses," Dobson explained, once she'd caught her breath, "so I ran some tests on your blood cells... Adam; you're not just made from pieces of previous men. There's a synthetic geneome running through your body, which mutates your cells and increases their power in several ways. You... I don't know what Victor Frankenstein was thinking when he designed it. Maybe he just thought you needed it to survive his procedures, or maybe he wanted to make something more than just an ideal human being. Adam, you've got a lot of powers that I never realized. For one thing, your strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, temperature resistence and so forth... They're all part of the custom-made system inside your body, which..."

"What does this mean for me?" Adam asked, however, starting to lose his patience with the young woman, "For obvious reasons, I never took an interest in microbiology."

"It means that nearly every capability that you have is adaptable to some degree. That's why you were able to adapt to the pressure when the Gill-man started crushing you under all those cars. On top of that, your body adapted to the electricity that Frankenstein used in his experiments. You have the ability to absorb and use almost any electrical current, no matter how strong."

"I know." Adam admitted, however, after only a moment, "A while back, I was struck by lightning, and instead of killing me, it actually healed my injuries."

However, what Dobson had to say after that really made Adam dislike her even more.

"So you had to discover your power all on your own? I mean, I know you were abandoned by Victor, but... I mean, what a waste."

"A waste?" Adam asked, suddenly taking an interest, "What do you mean? What was wasted?"

"I've read Doctor Frankenstein's notes," Dobson continued, starting to look genuinely sad, "but he never mentions strange powers like these. I'm guessing he either didn't realize you were going to have them, or else he wanted to help you develop them over time. Right now, though, you have a huge amount of potential; more than anyone I've ever met, and with the right kind of weapons, I'm sure you could become much more powerful. That's why I made a few things for you. They're not much, but they might help you bring out more of your own power, if you're interested."

For a few moments, Adam wasn't sure what to say. He certainly still saw the shadow of his father in Stephanie Dobson. She had a similar personality, and a strong curiosity, which drove her to experiment with the world. It wasn't too hard to imagine her creating a monster of her own, not unlike Adam, and yet...

And yet, Adam Frankenstein hadn't really hated Victor for bringing him into the world; only for abandoning him; for shirking his responsibilities as creator and father, and when he asked himself if he could picture Stephanie doing the same thing; refusing to take responsibility for her own creations, he had to admit that the answer was no.

It wasn't that Dobson was responsible by nature. She didn't really seem to be, but Adam couldn't picture her abandoning any of her creations, if she felt that she could still learn something from them, and new things could always be learned from living creatures. Though he didn't really want to think about it in that light, Adam had to admit that even after all those years of having been fatherless, there was something really safe and motherly about Dobson; something that almost seemed to smack of the genuine eagerness for learning, as opposed to the mere quest for greatness that had driven Victor on. It was a small difference perhaps, but, Adam decided, he'd give Dobson one chance to be his friend.

Soon, the two were headed to her lab, as the minutes continued to tick away. Though time was still running out, Adam didn't feel nearly as nervous as he had before.


	9. Chapter 9: Trap

Chapter 9: Trap

* * *

No one could have known where the first alien attack would begin. Many, including Dracula himself, expected them to start with Washington D.C., not because of its importance, but because that was the first place that the aliens had ever visited. However, as it turned out, that wasn't the first place hit.

Dracula had been sitting alone in his study, brooding somewhat, but also doing his best to monitor what was going on in the world through his many agents. Bats, wolves and nocturnal creatures everywhere were sending their thoughts to the lord of all vampires, and he could virtually see through all their eyes at once when he had to, though it was taxing, and he couldn't keep it up for long. Fortunately, he knew the exact time when the aliens were going to strike, so at that moment, he opened his mind to the creatures of the night, and saw what was happening in surprise.

Over Swindon; right there in the United Kingdom, there was something glittering and metallic, descending through the nighttime clouds; a spaceship of some kind. It was silvery, saucer-shaped, and very, very large. In fact, it was almost as big across as a skyscraper, and there was something sticking out of the bottom of it; something that looked like a glass bubble, with a bright red, luminous substance inside; like some kind of bonfire, and it was glowing more and more brightly as he watched, clearly preparing some kind of attack.

Quickly, Dracula got up from his seat and dashed downstairs, and into the lower levels of the base to alert the others. There wasn't any time for preparations anymore.

* * *

Adam had only been on the scene for a moment, but the enemy was hard to miss. It was a saucer-shaped space-ship, hovering over Swindon like some kind of huge, metal cloud, but the damage that it was doing was enormous.

Far from a single beam, or a few beams being aimed at the ground below, the weapon being emitted from that alien spacecraft seemed to be a form of charged energy, which lashed out automatically at the tallest objects nearby, melting them into unsalvageable slag, or else burning them to ash. It struck out in all directions at once, too, with a bright red light, which seemed to arc and glow when it emerged from the ship. It wasn't like anything that Adam had ever seen, and he felt a horrible pity in his soul for the people in Swindon, who were fleeing for their lives as the heat beams continued to rain from the alien ship all around them, striking buildings, trees and rock formations, and reducing the areas that it passed over to a desolate, molten wasteland, incapable of supporting life.

Still, as horrible as Adam felt about what was happening, he knew that he had a job to do, and as the others gathered around him, looking ready to start charging towards the alien saucer at any minute, Adam spoke up in the loudest voice he could muster, hoping to get everyone's attention.

"Wait a minute!"

"Wait?" Nancy asked, looking down at him in surprise from the place, a few yards away, where she was towering over the rest of them, "Wait for what? It's killing people!"

"We need a plan first." Adam said, trying to sit on his own anger, for the moment, "Otherwise, it'll just kill us too. Once we got within range of that thing, it would pick us off like clay ducks, and it's too high up for us to reach it, unless we can fly."

However, at that point, Adam turned to look at Dracula for some kind of solution again, and was surprised by what he saw. It was nighttime, so the vampire should have been at his strongest; able to take flight at any point, and he must have wanted to help them all defeat the alien invasion force. However, for some reason, he was scowling again. It was unpleasant, because Adam hadn't expected him to be that petty, that he'd resent strategic help from someone like the creature of Frankenstein. He must have realized how sorely Adam's help was needed.

However, just a moment later, it was Dracula himself who spoke, sounding as if he really was willing to listen to Adam's ideas. It was odd, but there was something about Dracula's behavior that still didn't add up. Regardless, though, Adam knew that he didn't have time to think about it much. He had to do his job first.

"Why don't you come up with a plan, then?" Dracula asked a bit coldly, "I'll listen."

"Well, the way I see it, we've only got two flying members here; you and Imhotep. On top of that, I think Nancy and Kong would probably be the first to be burned to death by those beams if they get too close. I really only see one weakness to the aliens, though. They don't seem to be attacking anything above them. I don't think this ship was designed for warfare in space; just eradicating ground-based enemies. If that's true, we shouldn't have any trouble if we can get on top of it, and break in somehow..."

Adam was reciting his plans aloud, even as he made them, looking over the forces that Dracula had managed to gather. Imhotep was there, still mostly covered by his long robe, and Dracula was still wearing his long, dark coat. Nancy and Kong still stood head and shoulders above the rest of them, some distance behind them all, and besides them, there were Barry and Dobson. Barry still looked very nervous, but that was to be expected. After all, he was about to start fighting for his life; maybe the only way he could still show that he cared about the people of his hometown in America. As for Dobson, she actually looked pretty impressive, because she was virtually covered in weapons and other strange machines. Adam had never seen anyone as well-armed as she was then.

Then there was the last person they'd managed to get on their team; the Gill-man. He might, physically, have even been the strongest, though it was hard to say, with Kong around, and he looked pretty confused and upset. Maybe he was starting to regret the way he'd attacked and nearly killed Adam, or maybe he'd just started to hate Adam, because of the way they'd fought, and how things had turned out between them, but for whatever reason, it was obvious that he was uncomfortable. Still, if Adam's plan was going to succeed, the Gill-man had a very important part to play, and he wasn't the only one.

"For now, Nancy, I think you and Kong should stay back." Adam said cautiously, hoping that Nancy Archer wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"I want to be part of this too." Nancy said in discontent, but Adam already had an answer for that.

"If the plan works out, you will be. Your part is this; if, at any point, the alien saucer stops firing and crashes to the ground, I want you and Kong to charge in as fast as you can and start tearing it apart."

"Yes, sir!" Colonel Archer replied with a bright smile and a salute, her momentary disappointment vanishing in an instant, as she started to realize some of what Adam was planning.

"Now, Imhotep..." Adam said, "Is it true that you can carry people with you when you fly?"

"Yes." Imhotep replied momentarily, "I become a storm of sand, and sweep up others with my force. I can carry dozens if needbe."

"Thank you, but less than half a dozen will be enough." Adam replied, giving Imhotep a slight bow of his head in respect, which the Egyptian seemed to acknowledge, "You'll be taking Barry, Gill-man, Dobson and myself. If you can, I'd like you to place us all on top of the saucer itself."

"Of course I can do that." Imhotep replied a bit stiffly, though fortunately, he didn't look too offended. However, it seemed that Dracula was very close to losing his temper by that point.

"What about me, Adam? What will I be doing during all this?"

However, Adam had an answer for that as well; one which seemed to give the vampire some measure of choice in the matter.

"You have two options. You can either stay behind, and help come up with a new plan, just in case the first one fails, or you can take flight yourself and follow Imhotep and the rest of us, then join in our part of the mission."

Of course, it seemed like a perfectly legitimate choice, but Adam had actually intended the question to be a trap. He had some nasty suspicions about Dracula; why he'd gathered them together, and led them all to that battle, but he hadn't wanted to accuse the vampire of anything until he could prove it, and that question, he thought, might do the trick. However, Dracula's answer, for the moment, dispelled Adam's fears.

"If you think you're leaving me behind, you're sadly mistaken."

"Alright." Adam said, getting back to his plan for the moment, "Now, once we're on top of the ship, the Gill-man will tear it open."

"W-what?" the Gill-man asked, looking stunned for just a moment, "What... I mean, what makes you think I can tear open a space ship from another world?"

"Because I've seen your strength in battle before." Adam explained, doing his best to be subtle as he shot the Gill-man a wry smile, "If you can't do it, none of us can."

The Gill-man still looked a bit uncomfortable with Adam's words, but he didn't raise any more objections, though he did start to sulk just a bit, as Adam explained the next phase of the plan.

"Once the ship is open..."

* * *

The alien ship shuddered, as a large section of the upper bulkhead was bent outward from the outside, by the bare hands of something with positively inhuman strength. Still, the strong, flexible alien metal was staying in one piece. For a few moments, the attack from outside seemed to have stopped, but then, alarms went off all over the ship. Something sharp and powerful was making cuts in the bulkhead, just over the place where it had recently been bent outward, and soon, the attack began all over again. However, that time, the pressure being exerted on the alien metal was enough, and considering the deep gouges that had already been made in it, it was no surprise when it tore wide open.

What was surprising was what happened a moment later, when an avalanche of what looked like sand poured into the chamber just beyond the bulkhead, and began swirling around at incredible speed, like a horrible sandstorm of the desert. Driven through the air, as though by powerful winds, the sand collided hard with bulkheads and control panels, putting dents and cracks in everything it touched, and if anyone had been in that room, they would undoubtedly have been killed. Then, at last, the sands began to condense; gathering into one small space, where they changed their form completely, revealing a humanoid figure in a long robe. Only a few moments later, other figures of a similar size and shape began descending into the ship through the hole in the metal, and just a short time after that, the video feed from that chamber went out. Still, the figure in charge of that ship had seen enough. They were clearly planet Earth's mightiest defenders, and it was up to him to fulfill his real mission, by fighting them himself.

After spending only a moment to make calculations about where they were, and how to track them down, the figure in the control center of the spaceship stepped into a transport chamber and disappeared.

* * *

Adam had been surprised by the meager resistance that he and the others had encountered within the alien saucer. It was armed, of course, and it was certainly doing some damage to the city below them, and yet, even considering the global power outage it had caused, it didn't seem to be defended well enough for a machine that was supposed to be destroying the whole world. In a way, the absence of any significant defenses on that spaceship worried Adam even more than if there had been a hundred alien weapons aimed at his head. Something about it just felt wrong somehow. Still, Dobson hadn't voiced any concerns, and had continued to lead them on through chamber after chamber of that large ship, further and further inward, relying on the Gill-man and Barry to tear through any metal barriers that got in their way. Adam had been learning to trust Dobson a bit more, over the course of the last few hours, but she either wasn't as worried as him, or else she just wasn't showing it.

At last, however, Dobson pulled a tiny, metal pellet from her belt, and dropped it into a hole in one of the pieces of armor attached to her wrists. Almost immediately, the whole wristband started to light up in a large variety of colors, and Dobson's smile began growing again. It seemed that her machine was used for more than just protecting her arm, because a moment later, she motioned for the Gill-man to break open the nearest wall, and once he and Barry had done their work, and the metal plates had been torn open, the sight past those walls was certainly encouraging.

The room beyond that destroyed wall was a very big one; almost the size of a gymnasium, and filled with display screens, control panels, keyboards and other interface terminals. Adam was fascinated, however, because there didn't seem to be anyone in that room. In fact, as far as he could tell, there wasn't a single soul in the entire ship. He had very good hearing, but he hadn't been able to hear anyone, and it didn't seem like Dracula or Dobson had either. However, by that point, Adam was sure that the whole thing was a trap. He couldn't prove it, of course, but he knew, and he was just about to say something. However, before Adam could even say a word, Dobson had climbed into the control chamber, followed by the Gill-man and Barry.

"Listen..." Adam said nervously, stopping Dracula before he could enter the control room himself, but just then, something new started to happen, which drove all thought of discussion from the minds of the six powerful earthlings. The whole ship seemed to give a violent lurch around them, and suddenly, everything was moving at once. The wall in front of Adam, which previously had been torn open by Barry's claws and the Gill-man's strength, started to melt, as if it were made of hot wax, and then, it surged upward again, re-connecting itself, in one piece, to the ceiling. Then, before Adam could make another move, the wall had lurched towards him, and split into several parts at once, forming new walls around him, almost before he could blink.

Just as Adam had feared; it was a trap by the alien attackers; whoever they were. In less than three seconds, they'd all been separated from one another, and from the looks of things, all the damage they'd done to the ship had been completely undone. Adam could already tell that the aliens had just been toying with them up to that point, but what he couldn't figure out was why. He had a few suspicions, but he was having a hard time thinking straight, and as luck would have it, that was when the alien made its first appearance.

Slowly, the very floor itself seemed to be rising up in one spot, changing its shape again, into a roughly humanoid, fully-metallic form. That figure was very intimidating; even to Adam, because it was a good foot taller than he was. However, the rest of the figure's body was very strange. It looked as if it was made completely out of one piece of metal, except for a two-piece visor, which seemed to cover the place where its eyes and nose should have been. The metal being didn't have any obvious facial features, though. In every other respect, it looked surprisingly human for an alien. In fact, in spite of the machinelike ruthlessness with which the aliens had attacked, Adam suspected that he might be able to reason with them.

"What's going on?" Adam asked the machinelike alien, "Why are you attacking us?"

However, the metal alien didn't reply aloud. Instead, he opened his hand, and there was a tiny flash of light very close to him, on the floor. Then, once the light had faded, there was a man standing there in its place. He wasn't nearly as tall as the large alien who'd just appeared, but he seemed more responsive, because he had all the facial features of an ordinary human being, as well as a full head of brown hair, and ears; which the other alien seemed to lack. He was frowning, though, and Adam could tell that something was different about him, because he couldn't smell either alien. It was almost as if neither of them was a real living being.

However, after a few seconds of looking sadly at Adam, the shorter figure spoke aloud to him directly.

"I'm sure you have some questions; especially if your people have forgotten my warnings to you. It's been more than a generation since I first visited you, but... Well, I'm afraid no reasoning that I can give to you will seem sufficient, but your planet cannot be allowed to threaten the galactic alliance. To prevent that, I'll do whatever is necessary, even if it means turning you over to the barbaric methods of Gort and the interplanetary police. I'm sorry, but... You've ignored my warning, and now, this is the only way to protect the peace."

Then, there was another brief flash of light, and the smaller alien was gone, leaving Adam with a sinking feeling of doom in his heart. It looked like reasoning with the aliens wasn't going to be possible after all, because that second figure had clearly been some kind of holographic illusion, and the larger one was almost definitely an android or robot of some kind. Somehow, it seemed like the planet Earth had been the victim of some kind of automated destruction sequence on the part of the aliens, and they probably wouldn't stop unless some kind of two-way conversation could be established between them and the people of Earth.

However, Adam was still a bit surprised at what the remaining alien did next. In a flash, the eight-foot, humanoid machine charged forward like lightning, its visor shining like the sun, and Adam barely had any time to think about how to react.

* * *

The Gill-man had already been out of water for more than an hour and a half, and he was started to feel very tired and dehydrated. Still, when the alien had appeared, he'd reacted quickly, lashing out with his fists in a volley of powerful blows; one right after the other. At first, it seemed like the alien had been driven back by his attacks quickly enough, but then, its visor had started to emit light, and the Gill-man found himself on the defensive; having a hard time seeing through the radiance to the place where his foe's next attack was coming from. Still, he did his best, eventually crouching down and sweeping one leg around, knocking the alien over. The light was still oppressive, but the Gill-man was having an easier time seeing his enemy, and moved in once more, delivering multiple body-blows to its chest and stomach as quickly as he could.

At first, it seemed like the alien was suffering serious damage from the Gill-man's assault. Large dents were appearing all over its metallic skin as he drove his fists and legs into it over and over again. However, after a while, the the alien creature raised its head up, to look towards the Gill-man one more time; its visor shining in a different color, and somehow, the Gill-man knew instinctively that it was about to do something very unpleasant.

In less than a second, the metal alien released a bright blue beam from its visor, which tore through the air towards the Gill-man, and it was all he could do to get out of the way of it, just before it hit the wall behind him. Only a moment later, a large chunk of that wall seemed to have just faded out of existence.

The alien's visor was still shining blue, but the Gill-man had already seen enough. As strong as he was, he knew that it wouldn't mean a thing if he got hit with a weapon like that, so he started moving again, running and twisting around as fast as he could, to get away from the beams of that alien creature, which got closer and closer to hitting him each time it fired. Again and again, the being from another world blew holes in the walls, floors and ceiling of that room as it tried to vaporize the Gill-man, and again and again, he had to move really fast to get out of the way, just in the nick of time. Still, the way things were going, it was only a matter of time before that being killed him, and that meant that he needed to make his next move quickly.

Cursing himself for not carrying any long-ranged weapons, the Gill-man started jumping back and forth across the chamber like lightning; careful not to remain in any one place for more than a moment, and putting tiny dents in the surrounding metal as his leaps carried him back and forth through the chamber, and gradually closer to the metal alien. At last, risking his life on one final leap, the Gill-man jumped for the alien's head, clinging to the back of its shoulders, and seized its visor in both hands, pulling at it as hard as he could. The machine he'd been fighting seemed a lot stronger than the walls of that place had been, but the Gill-man's muscles; strengthened by the kind of underwater pressure that could have crushed a submarine like a tin can, were the only advantage he really had against that thing, and he was determined to prove, once again, that he was stronger than any mere machine.

At last, with one final shout, the Gill-man yanked on the visor with all his might, and there was an ear-shattering crack, like a bolt of lightning, as the metal broke in two under his grip, and the machine's head split like an egg, spilling alien machine parts all over, as the artificial creature collapsed to the floor with a clang.

The Gill-man was breathing very heavily as he watched his enemy fall, feeling more and more exhausted as he fell to a seated position himself. He could tell that the heat from his enemy's weapons had dehydrated him even more, and if things kept up like that, he wouldn't even have the strength to move, but on top of that, he wasn't even sure he'd be able to escape that place on his own. It was a really bad situation, and for a moment, the Gill-man closed his eyes and tilted his head back, but just as he did that, he heard a strange sound, like water bubbling in a pot, and immediately, he looked towards the source of the noise in hope and alarm.

However, as the Gill-man looking around for the water he'd just heard, he noticed in dismay that the broken remains of his enemy had disappeared, as if they'd never even been there, and there was no water anywhere around him.

Though he felt like he was a hair away from falling asleep, the Gill-man knew that something strange was going on, but as for what, exactly, the alien saucer was trying to accomplish, he had no way to know, and that worried him more than anything.

* * *

Dobson was almost wrestling with her wrist-mounted device as she tried her best to jump out of the way of the beams that the alien machine was continuing to aim in her direction. She'd seen video footage of what those beams could do to normal weapons and people, and she didn't want to test any of her precious creations by letting them get hit by alien disintegrator rays. Still, she knew she needed some way to defend herself against that enemy, and her normal weapons didn't seem to be doing the trick.

The first thing that the alien had done when it had appeared had been to create some kind of hologram of another alien, who'd spent a while talking. Dobson hadn't paid much attention to what he'd said at first, but once he was done talking, the holographic alien had disappeared again, the the tall one had bathed Dobson green light. At first, she'd supposed that it must have been some kind of scanning beam, but she really had no idea what was going on in the minds of those odd, alien creatures, and just a moment later, when the tall alien had attacked, Dobson had found herself on the defensive, because among other things, there seemed to be something wrong with most of her weapons.

It didn't make a whole lot of sense to Dobson at first. She could understand how the aliens might interfere with electronic equipment, but the devices that she was wearing were powered by portable heat pellets, which should have worked, unless the aliens could somehow project intense cold inside of her machines. However, for some reason, the readouts that her wrist-mounted device should have been giving her were all coming back blank.

As she ducked out of the way of another beam weapon, Dobson quickly grabbed another pellet from her belt, and stuck it into her wrist-mounted device. For a moment, it seemed like it was started to work again, but then, there was another brief blip inside of her machine, and it blinked out again. However, in that brief moment when it had been operating, Dobson had seen something very important; the alien robot that was still attacking her had a glimmer in one of its hands, and that was something that Dobson could work with.

It was already becoming clear to the brilliant scientist just how the alien was preventing her machines from working. Somehow, it was sending out signals from certain points in its structure, which drained away most forms of radiant energy within specific ranges, and that, Dobson realized, was a very dangerous type of technology. Still, if it could be used on living organisms, the alien hadn't shown any sign of it. Whatever his reason was for not using that weapon to drain Dobson's biochemical energy, she intended to take full advantage of his momentary weakness.

Quickly, ducking out of the way of two more energy beams, Dobson removed a part from one of her shoulder-mounted devices, plugging it into her wrist machine. Then, in only another moment, she was back in a crouching position, aiming her wrist device at the alien robot again, and adding another pellet to the machine, she pressed the activation switch one last time.

A crackling sound filled the whole chamber as Dobson's machine changed its function in an instant, throwing off the heat-absorbing program that the alien was using, and giving her another opening. Not wasting a second, though, she removed another part from the device on her opposite shoulder, and slid it into her wrist machine, pressing the trigger again. At once, the sizzling noise intensified, and Dobson smiled as a fresh readout was displayed along the inside of her glasses. She ducked to one side again, as another disintegrator blast tore through the air in her direction, but when she dodged that one, it only made her smile even more, because she'd managed to get all the information that she needed from that last readout, and if only she could survive that one battle, she'd have an awful lot to keep her busy when she got back home. All she really needed, though, for the moment, was enough time to assemble one last machine.

That, of course, was the secret of Dobson's armor. It wasn't just ordinary metal, which protected her and amplified her strength. It was also completely made up of small machine parts of her own design, which gave her the chance to use her creative genius to design new defenses for herself on the go. Of course, there were a few things she couldn't do at a moment's notice, like design new interactive programs for her machines, but she'd done plenty of preparation for that battle, and she had a lot of available parts. An automated signal tuner plugged into the power supply first, then a invasive signal scrambler, followed by a energy projector on the front. A couple more safeguards were added to the back of the new device just a moment later. Under other circumstances, she might have built it with a hundred or so, but she only had so much time to work with, and it would, she decided, have to do for a momentary fix, because the alien was diving towards her, as if it was planning to seize her, and vaporize her once it had her in its grip. Still, that would hardly be a problem if her machine worked.

As the alien robot dove for her, Dobson jumped off to one side, getting just out of its reach. However, its head rotated like a turret, and it unleashed its disintegration beam again. That time, though, Dobson was ready for it.

Quickly, the mad scientist raised her new device; about the size and shape of a metal, handheld remote control, and heard the hum of the machine in her hand as it started to do its work. Still, as much faith as she had in her own inventions, she couldn't quite suppress a slight chill as the beam shot towards her. After all, if it didn't work, it could mean the end of her life. She could certainly still feel the heat from the blast, as it got closer and closer to her.

When the beam was only a few feet away from Dobson, however, it started to shine like the sun, stopping right where it was in mid-air, and she smiled in relief. The machine she'd built had worked just the way she'd hoped; disrupting the alien energy beam before it could reach her, and dispersing the ionized energy harmlessly in all directions. Of course, Dobson had a feeling that the alien would be able to come up with a response to her machine fairly quickly, but she only really needed a momentary defense against the attacks of her alien foe, before she could manage an attack of her own.

Of course, the battle would have been much easier if she'd only been able to operate the rest of her machines, but even on her own, Dobson knew, she could do what needed to be done. While blocking the beam weapon with her new device, she opened a tiny hatch along one of her wrist-mounted inventions, and unfolded a small, fully-mechanical contraption from inside of it, fitting another heat pellet into the slot in the back. However, that pellet wasn't going to be used to power the contraption, because the device that had just emerged from her bracer was little more than a powerful slingshot.

Soon, the heat pellet was flying through the air, shedding its outer shell as it traveled with amazing speed, and growing hotter and hotter as it did so. In less than a second, it had embedded itself in the alien android's arm, cleanly melting the metal that it seemed to be made of, and only a moment later, just as Dobson had suspected, the interference from the alien fighter stopped, and all of her weapons began humming again.

The moment that her machines came back on-line, Dobson started smiling again. The alien had proven that his technology was superior in many ways, but he wasn't nearly as clever when it came to using it, and that was her advantage. Quickly, Dobson aimed a prototype weapon square at the alien's head, watching the readouts spreading across her glasses as her weapon calculated every movement of the alien robot; charting his every twitch, to make sure she didn't miss. Then, with a bright, toothy smile, Dobson fired.

* * *

Adam's chest was aching like mad as he scrambled to his feet, struggling to find some way of defending himself against his new attacker. The robot; who the holographic alien had referred to as Gort, was even stronger than he looked; maybe even as powerful as the Gill-man had been. However, what really worried Adam was that midway through the fight, the alien had started firing blue beams from its eyes, completely destroying whole sections of the surrounding room, and Adam knew that if even one of those beams hit him, he was done for.

Fortunately, the alien wasn't reacting as quickly as the Gill-man, which meant that Adam had the advantage of speed over his enemy for the moment, but he wasn't sure how long that would last, and the constant assault was making it impossible for him to attack Gort directly. It was a terrible situation; a serious mismatch, just like the last fight he'd been in, but Adam knew that he had to try to survive somehow, and he could only think of one way to defend himself from something like that; a way he didn't like to resort to, even considering how desperate the situation was.

In a brief moment between attacks, Adam reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a pair of gloves, made from what looked like fine chain mail...


	10. Chapter 10: Achilles Heel

Chapter 10: Achilles Heel

* * *

Though Imhotep had been a bit surprised to find himself separated from the others at first, he hadn't really felt any fear over the trap they'd all been drawn into. It was true that escaping that place would most likely be difficult, but his powers were very different from the others. For one thing, he was virtually immortal, and his power of transformation gave him countless additional advantages, which the others lacked. In fact, he felt perfectly confident when the alien robot had appeared, and attempted to fire on him.

Though he would have needed a second to unleash most of his powers, certain abilities of his didn't require any preparation. Soon, he'd spun his arm around in a wide arc, and just like that, his form had completely changed to a small cyclone of sand and power, releasing tiny, vicious insects in all directions. It was a power which could have devastated a crowd of people, but the alien machine didn't seem effected, and in only a moment, it had begun some form of counter-attack, unlike anything that the mummy had ever seen.

At once, its hands and visor both began to glow brightly. The visor was shining green light, his left hand shone red, and his right was white. Imhotep tried to reach out briefly at that point, almost re-materializing one arm, but then the alien made its move. At once, the heat throughout that chamber rose to absurd levels, and Imhotep could feel even his sandy body starting to turn molten under the alien creature's power. Then, the machine moved its other hand forward, and at once, the temperature was freezing.

All of the insects that Imhotep had summoned from nothingness had either been burned to ash, or frozen solid by that point, but that wasn't the real problem. The alien robot had delivered that attack for a reason, and in spite of his otherwise-fantastic power and immortality, Imhotep was starting to realize that neither of those things always lead to victory. In only the few seconds that the alien had needed to perform its strange attack, Imhotep's entire body had been frozen into a single sculpture of glass.

* * *

Barry Hammerson had noticed something wrong with the Gill-man for a little while, how it had seemed like he was starting to feel weak while they were breaking into the alien ship, but at the time, he hadn't paid much attention to that, because he felt like he had all the energy he needed to tear through a hundred walls. However, when the walls had actually risen up all around him, separating him from his much-more-experienced teammates, Barry found that he would have given almost anything to have the others there; even the exhausted Gill-man. He'd felt a bit nervous on the way in, but nothing like what he was feeling then. In fact, by that point, Barry really was starting to feel like a caged animal. The only real advantage he had, he thought, was that he still had his claws, and he still had the energy he needed to at least try to escape.

However, after only a moment, Barry saw a figure rising up out of the floor; an eight-foot figure who seemed to be made of metal, and had a very large visor of his head, but otherwise looked almost human. Barry had never seen that figure before, but he was already starting to get a nasty feeling about him, even before the giant charged at him, slugging him hard in the chin, and knocking him back across the chamber.

Barry hit the walls of the chamber he was in with the force and speed of a cannon shell, and the alien was on top of him a moment later, driving blow after blow into his chest and head, and Barry could tell just how powerful they were. The blows continued, putting dents in the surrounding walls, and yet, Barry didn't exactly feel any pain from them. They shook him up, of course, and they made his teeth rattle, to say nothing of being very disorienting, but as for actual pain, he just didn't really notice any.

In just another moment, the alien had seized Barry by the legs and thrown him across the room again, and Barry had found himself with only a couple seconds to get over his dizziness and try to mount some kind of counter-attack. However, the alien's visor was already shining with a bright blue light, and Barry wasn't sure he'd have enough time to even get his bearings back, much less defend himself.

Sure enough, the alien began firing just a moment later, and Barry barely even had enough time to get to his feet before the beam weapon hit him square in the face.

The young werewolf was seeing spots after that. He wasn't sure what the light had been meant to do, but it had certainly made it hard to see, and decreased his reaction time again. However, it didn't seem to have done him any other damage, and for the moment, it was clear that the alien's assault had stopped, almost as if it wasn't sure what to do next, and was re-evaluating its approach.

However, just a moment later, something else happened, which Barry hadn't expected at all. The robot's feet began to sink into the very floor again, until its entire body had started to merge with the metal of the spaceship. It was just retreating the way it had come, and Barry hadn't even needed to do a thing to it. Still, he couldn't help but feel afraid, as if something had just happened that was going to give them all a lot of trouble.

* * *

Adam didn't like using the gauntlets he'd been given by Dobson, because he still wasn't sure he could trust her, and also because he still didn't really know how to use them, since he hadn't had much time to practice with them before the alien attack had begun. However, he decided ruefully, he'd known Dobson for a little while already, and she'd done nothing but help him, so he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and as for his own inexperience, that was something he'd have to fix by himself.

Soon, Adam had slid the gauntlets over his hands, where they ended at his wrists, and in just another moment, he was clenching his fists tightly around them, and he could feel something happening as he did so. Some kind of power felt like it was flowing out of him and into those gauntlets; as if just wearing them was bringing him closer and closer to exhaustion. Of course, that wouldn't mean a thing if he was dead, Adam decided, so he immediately made another leap sideways, trying to get out of the way of the continuing attacks of the alien machine. However, it seemed that that time, the alien had anticipated his move, because it was firing directly at him again, and he couldn't get out of the way in time. The heat from the incoming beam was already getting oppressive to Adam, and he was really starting to feel terrified that he was about to die. Still, he remembered his mission, and his purpose, as well as the reason he had for living. Adam only needed one stray thought, to call up an image of Nancy's smiling face, and remember the lessons she'd so recently taught him about compassion and what it really meant to improve oneself.

Adam had almost begun to look at Nancy Archer as a rival; hoping to some day be as compassionate as her, but not really certain that he could be. After all, he may have been a monster in a certain sense, but he was also human, and that meant that compassion didn't always come easily. Learning to succeed at that was definitely a big challenge, and he hated to turn down one of those. More importantly, though, Adam realized that he couldn't fail because Nancy and the others were counting on him to help save their world, and with that fresh determination, he raised his arms in the direction of the beam, refusing, in his heart, to let it harm him at all. It was, after all, only some mindless thing, and it couldn't understand, much less compete with the passionate will that drove him on.

A moment later, there was a bright flash of light, and Adam felt power traveling out from his body, changing shape and form as it did so, as if responding to his mental command, and a sound like a furious thunderclap filled the room a moment later, as the death ray struck a wall on the far side of the room, vaporizing a large section of it.

For several seconds, Adam wasn't sure what had happened, exactly, and the alien robot didn't look as though it understood either. They continued to watch each other from opposite sides of the room, but something was different. The machine's posture was starting to change, and it was beginning to raise its fists again. Adam could tell that that robot; whatever it was, was a stranger to both fear and pain, and yet, it certainly looked as if Adam's latest maneuver had surprised it for a short time. He could understand that, however. As gifted a mind as he possessed, he was having a hard time figuring out what had just happened too. In fact, it was several seconds before he realized the truth.

Dobson's explanation of her miraculous gauntlets had been a bit hard to follow. She'd mentioned that they drew on Adam's natural energy, and on the thoughts of his mind, to re-shape the power of his own body in whatever way was necessary, but Adam had never expected anything like that. In fact, it seemed as if Dobson had succeeded in doing the impossible; creating a machine that changed the very way that electricity moved.

At the moment when the alien's beam had been about to hit Adam's hands, a strong electric charge had passed through his gauntlets, colliding with the alien beam, and seeming to interfere with it somehow. Then, in just a moment, the electricity rose up and slapped the blast of ionized energy right out of the air, making the sound of booming thunder as it struck, and sure enough, Adam did feel quite a bit weaker after that had happened, as his body's own bio-electric power had decreased, but still, Adam had never heard of any machine that could make electricity travel upwards. In terms of physics, it made no sense at all, and yet, Dobson had managed it. Those gauntlets were certainly a very unique and precious weapon.

Unfortunately, Adam's new weapon still hadn't made him invincible. He was sure that they could accomplish quite a lot with a sufficient power source, but he only had so much energy in his body, and he was already feeling very weak. Sooner or later, he knew, he was going to run out of power, and when that happened, he'd be at the alien machine's mercy, which meant that he needed to make a move quickly.

The problem was, Adam still wasn't sure what to do. Somehow, the idea of shorting out the robot with a powerful electric shock didn't seem likely to work, and it had already proven that in terms of physical strength, it was quite capable of batting him around like a rag doll. Still, he knew he had to do something, and there was only one other thing that Adam could think to try at that point.

Soon, the alien had begun to move quickly again, back and forth across the room, as if trying to avoid some invisible adversary, but Adam could tell what he was really trying to do. Supposing that he had some effective means of attacking the alien, Gort wanted to do his best to avoid it. However, far from being able to hurt the alien, Adam only had one real plan for his own defense, and it all depended on what the alien android did next.

Fortunately, Gort did start firing again, when he was only less than a yard away from Adam, and although it didn't give the monster of Frankenstein much time to react, he did the best he could. Quickly, he used the gauntlets again, draining his own power to defend himself. Once again, the power flowed into the gauntlets, and once again, a deafening thunderclap was heard, as raw electricity struck the alien beam away, knocking it off to one side, where it started eating away at the wall, and that was when Adam made his move. He suspected that his strength wouldn't be enough to actually damage the extraterrestrial android, but there was one thing that he could still do.

Using his superior speed, Adam ducked underneath the punch being thrown at him by his enemy, and seized the metal creature's torso in a monstrous bear hug, then lifted him clear off the ground. For a moment, it seemed, Gort was too surprised to turn his head and start firing again, so Adam used that to his advantage, hurling his foe across the room at the recently-thinned-out wall with all the strength he could muster.

The thin, metal barrier that was left of the wall gave when the robot hit it, putting a huge dent in it, and throwing Gort off its guard again. However, nothing had really been accomplished by that. The wall was still in one piece, and Gort looked like at any moment, he might just get back up and start attacking again, so Adam knew that he had to take advantage of the android's momentary disorientation while he had the chance.

Quickly, the patchwork man charged right into Gort, delivering a powerful body slam to the stronger-looking creature, and that was when the wall gave way, bursting outward, and Adam and Gort went crashing into the next room, plowing through two more large machines, and making scrap of them as they moved into the center of the chamber beyond, which seemed to be the very control room that Barry and the Gill-man had broken their way into not long before. It was a little hard to tell, but it was the first place that Adam had seen in days, which still had electric lights in it, and suddenly, that gave him another idea.

As quickly as he could, while Gort was still trying to get its footing back, Adam charged towards one of the large devices that filled the center of the room. They all looked very complicated, and he couldn't tell which machines did what, but at the moment, it didn't matter, as long as they were still powered by some form of electrical current. In just a moment, Adam had kicked one of the machines as hard as he could, putting another small hole in the metal, and quickly drove his hand into the hole, seizing a thick cable from inside, and pulling it out in one piece. Then, just a moment later, Adam pulled the cable apart with his bare hands, and was satisfied to note that the lights all over that machine had gone out all at once, which meant that it really was some type of power cable, although he didn't recognize the substance that it was made out of. Still, power was power, and it was just what Adam needed. In only a moment, he'd stuck the two sides of the power cable into the hidden protrusions in his neck, and braced himself for the worst.

Gort seemed to have gotten back to his feet by that point, but Adam could barely spare him a glance. He'd had raw electricity running through his body more than once before, but never like that. Even lightning had never had the pure, concentrated strength of whatever that alien power source was. Adam wasn't even sure it was electricity, as he knew it, but it was certainly something, and his body was adapting to it, just like it did to electrical power. In fact, if anything, it seemed to be rushing into his body even more efficiently than an electric charge did. With that kind of power, Adam realized silently, he could use his new gauntlets for hours.

Gort was charging at him again, firing his beam weapon as he moved, but Adam felt as if his reflexes had almost been enhanced by the alien power source, and in just a moment, he was batting the beams away left and right, as if they were nothing, each time making a deafening noise like thunder. In the end, it was going to be a fight between Adam and Gort in person, and in that place, he knew, there were many opportunities to take advantage of.

Gort was starting to move a bit faster during his next volley of attacks, but Adam had seen through them before, and he certainly didn't have any difficulty then. Removing the cables from his neck, he dropped down as low as he could go, and started kicking Gort at an unusual angle; the biggest weakness that he could find in his opponent's technique. Then, in just another moment, he'd grabbed the walking machine by the head, and placed his hand over Gort's visor, creating another strong electric charge. Gort didn't seem foolish enough to fire in that position, so instead, he tried to knock Adam's arm away, but the undead man ducked off to one side before his enemy could do any damage, and started punching him from various angles again.

The problem was that as strong as Adam was, none of his punches seemed to be doing anything to Gort, and the android had proven that it was nearly impervious to strong electrical currents. On the face of things, Adam could only think of one more thing to do, which might give him the chance to do any kind of damage to his enemy.

Gort was trying to hit Adam with his beams again by that point, but Adam had already begun his counter-attack, seizing the eight-foot machine by the left leg, and lifting him into the air again, swinging him around like a ball and chain. Gort continued trying to fire as he was swung around by the ankle, but it was obvious that he'd lost control of the fight, and the only way he could win was by out-lasting his opponent. Adam was just too clever in the use of his power.

Soon, Gort had been swung through a machine on one side of the room, scattering machine parts everywhere. As expected, his body was tougher than most of the devices in that room. A moment later, the android had broken three more machines open, and the ship was starting to shudder around them, as though something very important had just been damaged, and the spaceship was trying to recover from the loss. However, Adam still wasn't finished. He wasn't getting tired yet, and Gort was clearly still in one piece, and he had no intention of stopping until the robot did.

At last, with one final, ferocious swipe, Adam swung Gort through one more machine, and just like that, something very important seemed to have been jarred loose, because Gort's whole body disintegrated in Adam's hands, changing into some kind of metallic powder. Only a moment later, however, the very floor under Adam's feet began to soften as well, and he had a nasty feeling that the alien ship was about to follow its occupant into whatever strange fate he'd suffered.

Only a moment later, the whole ship lost its solidity at once, and Adam found himself falling towards the desolate, molten sections of Swindon below, almost completely certain that he was about to die. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw one thing that made him feel even worse than that, in a way. The light from Gort's visor didn't seem to have disintegrated with the rest of him. It was shooting up into the sky, like some kind of beacon; headed back for the stars...

* * *

Of course, when the floor had started turning to powder, Dobson's first reaction had been to scratch her chin in surprise, and her second had been to whip out a bottle and take a sample, but once she found herself in free fall, she realized that she needed to do something about it, and immediately started thinking up a solution. Dracula and Barry would probably be alright, and Imhotep was supposedly immortal, which just left herself, Adam and the Gill-man to worry about. That meant that she needed three machines to defy gravity with in a very short period of time, which, even considering all the devices that she had hooked up to her armor, didn't really seem possible, even if she could find the others in short order.

Still, Dobson started work on hers anyway, disconnecting and reconnecting her weapons systems into new positions on her armor. Fortunately, it only took about a second, and activating the machine took even less time, though she found she needed to add a few extra pellets to it, if she wanted to keep it going. As one, all of her weapons activated, firing off missile jets, flames and explosions of kinetic force directly downwards, propping her up in mid-air, and giving her the upward thrust that she needed to stay aloft for a short while. It consumed a lot of heat pellets, but at least it seemed to be effective, for the moment, which meant that she could turn her attention to the others again.

The Gill-man wasn't far off, though he looked exhausted, and almost asleep. That, Dobson thought, was probably a good thing, since it would make him less likely to struggle when she caught him out of the air.

Dobson never would have been able to manage something like that, if it weren't for the bracers on her arms, enhancing her strength, and soon enough, she'd managed to propel herself underneath the Gill-man, and seize him by both arms, carrying him towards the large sections of Swindon that hadn't already been torched. In fact, Dobson was actually surprised by just how little of the town had been annihilated. Only a few of the really large buildings had been melted, although there were large fires for several feet around the worst molten terrain. Still, Dobson couldn't see Adam from where she was, and she had no way to rescue him, even if she had been able to find him. It nearly broke her heart, because he'd certainly been the most interesting specimen she'd even encountered.

However, just then, Dobson saw something on the horizon; a beam of blue light shooting up into the stars from not too far away, and from the very spot where that beam had originated, there fell Adam Frankenstein, plummeting headlong towards the molten ground below. However, he was, to Dobson's relief and delight, wearing the gauntlets that she'd given him, and that gave her a glimmer of hope. After all, those gauntlets were capable of quite a bit, even if Adam didn't understand their full powers yet.

"Adam!" Dobson shouted, hoping that the constructed giant's hearing was good enough to notice her voice above all the ruckus going on around them, "Use the gauntlets! Use them quick!"

* * *

Adam had started to feel truly helpless when he'd begun his fall towards the ground, but then he'd heard the sound of a small, indistinct voice, calling out to him over the din. He couldn't quite make out what was said at first, but then, he heard the same words from a much louder source. It was further away, but the throat that had produced those words was several times larger.

"Adam! Use the gauntlets! Use them quick!"

Adam recognized that voice. It belonged to someone who he owed an awful lot to, and he knew that he could never ignore her. Quickly, he drove his gauntlets downward and activated them again, drawing on his energy to create a bolt of lightning, which traveled around his hands with the sound of a thunderclap, and, he noticed, propelled him upward just slightly. It wasn't much help, but suddenly, Adam Frankenstein realized just what he had to do next.

Carefully, he activated the gauntlets again, limiting the flow of power to them, and doing his best to change its shape with his will. It was difficult to master the technique, but his father had given him great speed, and a mighty brain with which to adapt well to such challenges, and before he could get within twenty feet of the ground, Adam found himself supported in mid-air by a powerful stream of electrical pulses, emerging from the center of his gauntlets. It was the fruit of the weapon that Dobson had given him; a brand new way to use his powers, and, he suspected, it wouldn't be the only one that he'd discover. The problem was that it was eating up his body's energy like mad, and he knew that he was going to give out at any moment, so he had to get himself out of that molten area as fast as he could.

Adam's vision was starting to fade as he tried to propel himself away from the lava below. He knew that he needed to get at least ten feet away from it, or he'd burst into flames, and yet, he still had several yards to go, and he wasn't sure he could make it on time. At the last second, his vision gave out almost completely, and he could hear a persistent pounding in his ears. Then, he felt himself falling again, and a moment later, something very large, soft and pleasant had opened itself to receive him.

* * *

When Adam's eyes opened, the first thing that he saw was blinding light. It stung his eyes, and there was a noise from all around him, but it sounded like more of a low hum than any kind of angelic singing, and that was when Adam's vision began to clear, and he realized that the light was coming from overhead; a strong ceiling lamp, hung over the bed on which he was resting. It was a soft, comfortable bed, but Adam had felt softer things in his life, and he was eager to get back up again.

Quickly, Adam got to a seated position, looking all around, and still in something of a daze, though admittedly, that was normal, since he'd just woken up, and there was Dobson, standing over him. Still, she wasn't as unwelcome a sight as she'd once been, and that time, Adam realized, looking at himself in the reflective surface of the nearest wall, she seemed to have done him a world of good. She'd attached two machines to his neck, which looked like tiny bottlecaps with power connections hooked up to them, and Adam could already tell that through those machines, some of his old strength was starting to return. He was beginning to feel very conflicted at that point, because part of him wanted to shake off the power converters she'd hooked him up to, and yet, he still wasn't quite back to full strength, and he really still wanted her help. Besides, as crazy as Dobson may have been, she did seem to care about him on some level.

Still, Adam wasn't satisfied with just sitting there and doing nothing, so after a few moments, he spoke up again, hoping that Dobson would be willing to answer his questions.

"Those... those gauntlets..." Adam said, having a hard time thinking straight, even as he spoke up, but Dobson looked distracted when she replied to him.

"Yes. They were designed to draw on bio-electric energy and reshape it using your brain waves as a guide. The power was all yours, though. In fact, with time, you might even be able to do it on your own."

However, Adam was starting to feel a sense of dread by that point, because Dobson had said all of that in such a bland, dispassionate tone of voice, that he could tell something was wrong. They did seem to have beaten the invaders back, and yet, Dobson had hardly been cheered up by it at all. In fact, she looked like almost all the enthusiasm had been sucked right out of her, which was a huge change for the insane scientist. Usually, she looked very upbeat, or even irrepressibly positive in a manic sort of way. However, Adam still wasn't sure whether he should ask about what was making her feel so down, so instead, he asked something else.

"Before things went black" Adam said, finally recovering his bearings as he continued to absorb energy from Dobson's machines, "I thought I felt something supporting me from underneath; I mean something a lot softer than the ground, and... I can't figure out what happened."

That had apparently distracted Dobson for a few moments, but soon, it seemed that she'd decided to put on a brave face and answer the question, smiling just a little bit when she replied in amusement.

"That was Nancy's hand, Adam. The reason you're alive right now is that she grabbed you out of the air. Otherwise, you would have fallen right into the fires around the lava, and I would have lost my favorite specimen."

Adam was a little unnerved by Dobson's choice of words, but no more than usual, and he would, he decided, have to thank Nancy when he got the chance. That made twice that Nancy had helped him in an absolutely essential way, and each time, Adam had felt the same way; a mix of gratitude and shame. It had been a long time since he'd felt that way around anyone.

"What about the others?" Adam asked a moment later, "Are they okay?"

Of course, Adam had expected to hear that many of them were dead, but fortunately, the news was a bit more positive than that.

"The Gill-man is recovering from dehydration right now, but he should be alright." Dobson replied, "Barry was a mess of igneous rock and ash when we found him, but as far as I can tell, he still hasn't suffered any lasting harm, and he should be back in action in no time. As for Dracula, I think got luckiest of all. He's totally uninjured, though I haven't talked to him much since we got back."

However, that still left one question, which Adam felt needed to be asked, though he hadn't been very attached to the last member of their team.

"What about Imhotep?"

On that subject, however, Dobson just shrugged, looking almost as if she didn't really care.

"Nobody knows. We haven't seen him since the attack. He could still be out there. Frankly, it's hard to imagine him being killed by some alien weapon, but I haven't heard any news about what happened to him. It's like he just disappeared."

"I'm still not entirely sure what happened up there." Adam admitted sadly, scowling as he leaned back on the bed, glancing up at the bright ceiling lamp again, "I seized that alien android by the ankles, and started swinging him into machines, destroying them, but after that... I'm just not sure. It was almost as if I broke something important, and then everything fell apart."

However, only a moment later, Dobson replied to Adam's observation with one of her own.

"Yes. That's probably the case."

That one remark was enough to get Adam's attention again, because he was a little surprised that Dobson was showing an understanding of the alien technology already.

"I took a sample of the powder that made up their ship, and analyzed it while you were out." Dobson said a moment later, looking more and more worried as she spoke, "It's not powder, Adam. That ship was made out of microscopic, interlocking super-computers, which store volumes of information in the form of arranged electron pulses. Even if nobody had ever told me that this technology was alien, I would have been able to figure it out. It's more advanced than anything I've ever seen by a wide margin, and it uses energy in a totally different way than usual."

"So, wait a minute..." Adam said, not quite certain that he completely understood, "Are you saying that the only thing holding that ship together was the power source that I destroyed when I started swinging the android around the control center?"

"It seems that way," Dobson replied, though if anything, that had apparently made her feel even less secure, "but that just raises other questions. For example, why would they build a ship with such an obvious Achilles heel, and why wouldn't they give it stronger defenses? I was puzzling over this the whole time. The ship only had one inhabitant, and he could have stayed in the control chamber the whole time, since he didn't need to eat or sleep. On top of that, at any moment, he had the power to reshape any part of the ship into copies of himself to fight with invaders, so you'd think he could have reshaped it into other kinds of weapons too."

"I guess I'm not sure what you're saying." Adam replied, though he was starting to get a slight sinking feeling himself.

"I'm saying the alien responsible for this so-called 'invasion' clearly wanted us to destroy that ship, and defeat its occupant." Dobson replied, finally scowling openly as she spoke, "This wasn't a serious invasion. The whole thing was meant to gather information about us; not destroy the Earth."

"So in other words," Adam realized in dismay, "This isn't over."

"No." Doctor Stephanie Dobson replied ruefully, "Not by half."


	11. Chapter 11: Lycanthropy

Chapter 11: Lycanthropy

* * *

Adam had been waiting in the common room for a while, trying to keep from feeling impatient. There was someone he wanted to talk to, and she'd promised to meet him in that room within the last few minutes. She must have been held up by something, which wasn't too shocking, given all the chaos that had gone on over the last few hours, but he was still surprised by the way she looked when she opened the door, and stepped inside the common room, her boots making deafening thudding noises whenever they hit the carpet, in spite of the lethargy with which she was moving them.

When Nancy Archer finally collapsed onto the giant couch that had clearly been made for her, Adam had to grab the fabric to keep from being thrown into the air. However, when she glanced down at her smaller friend, she still had the same look in her eyes, in spite of her apparent exhaustion. In fact, she looked even more compassionate towards Adam than she had before. It was an encouraging sign, so after a moment, Adam decided to speak up, and hope she'd be willing to listen to him.

"There's bad news, Colonel." Adam began, but Nancy actually interrupted him just a moment later, in almost the very words he'd been about to use.

"The power's still out, and the aliens aren't through with us yet." she observed, surprising Adam just a little, though it only took her a moment to explain where she'd gotten that information.

"Dracula had that figured out pretty quickly." she said.

"So did Dobson," Adam replied, "though I hear the two haven't talked much since the ship fell apart."

"I guess not, but I try not to pry."

Nancy still looked just as upset as she had before, but that was no surprise, so Adam continued, hoping for a positive reply to his next remark.

"Colonel Archer... Nancy... I felt I should thank you."

"For saving your life?" Nancy asked, looking surprised, "It's no problem. That's just part of my job; to protect my smaller teammates in high-danger situations."

"You still deserve a medal for that..." Adam replied, ignoring Nancy's objections, "and for one more thing too. I... I'm sorry I didn't bring this up earlier. I suppose I was still a bit ashamed of myself, which was why I was so reserved, and maybe I thought that no one would care how I felt, but..."

However, at that moment, Nancy's already-impressive-sized eyes had widened even more, and all of her lethargy seemed to be gone, though in its place, there was something like embarrassment, curiosity and nervousness all rolled into one. Still, she had the chance to make some excuse for herself, get up off that couch and leave, and she didn't take it. When she asked her own question a moment later, in fact, it was clear that she didn't really want to bring the conversation to an end just yet.

"How you felt? What do you mean?"

Adam nearly sighed as he gathered his courage, and prepared to tell Nancy the full truth, hoping that she'd take it the right way, and not jump to any conclusions.

"Nancy, I spent much too long running from my problems, but now I feel I'm ready to face them again, and I know if I really want to be strong, I have to fight my own inner weaknesses. The problem is, I'm still not certain what I'm aiming for; what my goal is. I mean, no one's perfect, and I've found precious few human beings who make sufficient role models. Still, I needed someone who could show me what it meant to be the ideal person that my father once meant for me to be, before he abandoned me."

"I eventually found that person;" Adam continued, smiling just a little, although Nancy still looked nervous, "a monk named Brieve. He was wise and kind, and he showed me what it meant to really care for others, and just why kindness wasn't always accompanied by weakness. He showed me how a man could be good, and also strong, and what it meant to care about someone, even to the point of sacrifice. I looked at him as my only visible role model for the longest time, because he understood what love really meant; that it was never selfish, and had nothing to do with personal pleasure. I still care about him a great deal, but on that first night, when we arrived at this base, the way you spoke to me was the same way he did. I don't know why you were so kind to me, Miss Archer, but it's the most I could ever ask of you, and I felt I should thank you for that, from the bottom of my heart."

For a moment, however, Nancy's face started shifting into new expressions like mad, and Adam wasn't sure what to make of it. At first, she looked flattered, then she started to look ashamed, then she seemed as if she was about to burst into tears, and then she actually looked as though she was going to start shouting. However, she didn't wind up reacting in any of those ways, and eventually just reverted to her exhausted expression; the same one she'd been wearing when she'd first entered the room.

"It's alright." Nancy eventually replied flatly, "Don't worry about it. It was nothing."

However, Adam had been around for quite a while, and he had a talent for understanding situations like that. He could tell that something was very wrong with Nancy, and as much as he hated to upset her further, he knew he couldn't just let things sit like that.

"You're lying." Adam observed, drawing a look of absolute shock to the face of the monstrous giantess, "It wasn't nothing. It was all you could do to keep talking to me that way, wasn't it?"

Of course, Adam hadn't meant to words to sound accusing, but it seemed that Nancy had taken them that way, because a moment later, she'd started hissing angrily.

"Well, who wouldn't have a hard time with all this?" Nancy replied cuttingly, "I mean, I've read all about you, Adam, even before... Well, before this happened to me!"

When Nancy said that, she raised one hand as high over her head as she could, and started scowling bitterly, but she continued before too long.

"When I was a teenager, I read about you in school, and do you have any idea just what started me drinking? Do you know why I lost control of my life, and tried to forget about what was real and what wasn't? It was because I couldn't find a single guy in my entire life who was anywhere near as clever and contemplative as you! I was never happy with the people I knew, Adam, because they were all happy being just ordinary guys, and never wanted to improve themselves in the slightest. You... I mean, even when that book was written about you, you were..."

"...A cold-blooded murderer." Adam interrupted ruefully.

"A tragic hero." Nancy argued.

"A vengeful sociopath."

"Betrayed by superficial society."

"Hideous."

"Not on the inside."

"Yes. On the inside. I murdered innocent people, because of a grudge against one man."

"You're different now."

However, by that point in the conversation, Adam could tell that Nancy's words were driving in a direction that he'd never expected them to, and he wasn't even sure whether he should try to steer the discussion elsewhere or not. Adam could already see just what Nancy's problems really boiled down to, and in many ways, the two of them were a lot alike.

"You sound like me." Adam finally admitted, although Nancy's expression didn't change from angry exasperation when he said that, "Both of us were born into a world unwilling to teach us what we needed for our own survival. Your parents didn't abandon you, though."

"Yes they did." Nancy replied angrily, however, without missing a beat, "They spoiled me. If that's not abandoning me, I don't know what is."

Adam was still stunned by the depth of wisdom that Nancy's years seemed to have taught her, but he decided to simply concede the point to her for the moment, and hope that he could get back to what he'd been trying to say in the first place.

"Nancy, I... I'm sorry if I upset you in some way. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. I just assumed that, like everyone else, you... Well, I assumed that you found my appearance horrifying, and I sort of wanted to get that out in the open air. I apologize."

However, when Adam said that, Nancy's near-crying expression returned, though he couldn't spot any actual tears. She was, however, having some trouble talking with him, because it seemed that she still couldn't get past her feelings.

"Do you know what the strangest thing is about all this?" Nancy asked at last, completely ignoring Adam's apology, "All these years, I always convinced myself that you weren't even a real person, because I didn't think complicated, heroic guys even existed, and now you pop up all of a sudden, and tell me that I'm your role model? It almost feels like a trick. I just don't know what to say."

"Did you really ever admire me before you were a monster?" Adam asked, but fortunately, Nancy didn't look the least bit offended by the question. It seemed that at the very least, she'd come to grips with just who and what she'd become.

"I did, and now, after all these years, you turn out to be... I mean..."

"Different?" Adam asked, though that only made Nancy look less comfortable than before, leaning back into the tremendous couch again, and looking away from him.

That, however, was when Adam had to make another choice. Nancy was clearly frustrated, but he wasn't really sure why. It might have been because she felt like she was being put on the spot, or maybe, Adam considered, she was really just angry at herself for having blown up at him just then. Adam's intuition had been wrong before, but it usually wasn't, so he continued just a moment later.

"Different... and better. As you said, you admired the old me, and you admit that I'm not the villain I used to be. What do you think of me now?"

"It doesn't matter." Nancy replied, still not daring to look back towards him, but by that point, he was sure that he understood how she was really feeling, and he didn't want to leave her in a nasty mood like that, when he knew how to rectify the situation.

"Well, I just told you what I think of you, and I won't take it back. You taught me that love and caring can be found in more than just one person in a million, and all you had to do was show me a little human kindness. I think that may have been the most important thing you've done for me; even more than saving my life."

"Love!" Nancy exclaimed, although it was hard to tell exactly what she meant by that. There was something about her tone of voice that sounded a bit sarcastic when she said that word, and yet, that sarcasm wasn't reflected in her face or posture. They just seemed to be conveying a strong disappointment. By that point, though, Adam was sure that he understood how Nancy must have been feeling, and a moment later, he said something that, much to his dismay, caused a look of unspeakable horror to spread across the giantess's face.

"Nancy, if you think I'm an unbearable sight, you can just tell me. I won't take offense. I know I can be ugly to some, with each body part a different size and shape. Still, men like myself prefer the concrete to the emotional. You would be doing me a great courtesy if you just told me why you were pushing me away."

For a few moments, Nancy just stared at Adam in fear, as if his insights were more terrifying to her than his appearance, and in just another moment, she leaped up from the couch and fled from that room, running full-tilt, her feet shaking the whole base as she drove them into the floor again and again on the way out of the common room, and Adam couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, even though it wasn't entirely his fault. Nancy Archer clearly had a lot of problems which, even in all her years, she hadn't quite resolved.

* * *

Adam hadn't wanted to sit on that giant couch for even a moment longer, after the words that had just passed between himself and Nancy, so he'd slid off very quickly, then left through the opposite door, and started pacing the titanic hallways of that compound, not really sure what to expect or look for, or even if he should be looking for anything. He had a feeling that he should probably be doing something, but he didn't really know what, and as he walked down those reinforced, metal halls, he could hear most of the things going on around him. He could still hear Nancy, off on one side of the base, though he suspected that she could hear him even better, and although she wasn't stomping around anymore, she did seem to be talking to someone. When he concentrated, Adam could hear what some of the others were doing as well. Dracula was too far away, and the Gill-man was just resting, but Dobson was making a racket in her lab, and Barry... Barry was headed right towards Adam, almost sounding like he was sprinting.

Adam was on the alert almost immediately, once he realized that Barry was running towards him. Werewolves often lost control of their emotions, and Barry had certainly gone through a lot recently. Depending on how he'd taken their recent adventures, Adam concluded, he might even be confused enough to attack anyone he came across. However, as the young werewolf rounded a corner, heading towards where Adam was standing, the creation of Frankenstein realized that he'd been worried over nothing. Though he did seem to be in a pretty big hurry, Barry didn't look like he was enraged, or confused, or anything like that. He seemed pretty elated, and eager for attention, but not really dangerous, fortunately, and in just another moment, he spoke up, looking as if his former nervousness was starting to fade away.

"Adam! Adam! Look at this!"

In another moment, Barry had pulled a piece of what looked like rock from behind one of his ears, and held it up for Adam to see. Sure enough; it did look like igneous rock; only recently hardened, and Adam could tell why Barry was so excited.

"I was covered with this stuff until a few minutes ago. Do you know what this used to be, Adam? It used to be lava! That stuff burns people to a crisp at ten feet, and I just walked right through it! Oh, sure, it was hot; really hot, but it didn't feel much worse than being dunked in scalding water, and now I don't even have a single burn! Can you believe that?"

However, Adam, for one, was having no difficulty believing what had happened to Barry. In fact, he'd been expecting him to survive something truly devastating for a while, and was glad that it hadn't shaken the boy's perception of reality too badly, so when he spoke next, Adam's voice was calm and in control.

"Quasi-immorality." Adam observed, "Old Talbot had the same problem."

"Problem?" the boy asked, however, looking as though he didn't understand in the least, "What problem? I've never felt better in my life! I'll bet I can do whatever I want, now that nobody and nothing can..."

"That's the problem right there!" Adam exclaimed, suddenly growing visibly angry as his worry about the young man grew, "That's how it always starts; the power of the werewolf takes hold of you, increasing your natural aggression and arrogance, and then, once you realize that it also makes you very hard to kill, you start to think of it as a means to an end; just another way to force your will on other people. Then, you keep thinking about it that way, until finally, someone dies, and you're responsible. That's how it happened to Talbot, and if you're not careful, it'll happen to you the same way, Barry."

Barry had seemed very enthusiastic about his power just a moment before, but when he saw how Adam had responded, his expression changed to one of pitiable shame. That, however, was when Adam noticed something new about Barry; something that he'd never seen in any other werewolf before. Though he was still young and impulsive; even more so than Talbot had been, Barry Hammerson seemed very easily shamed as well. That, Adam thought, was a promising sign.

"I guess... I don't know. I mean, I don't really... Look, if I can be this powerful, what does it mat...?"

"Before you finish asking me that question," Adam interrupted the young werewolf very sternly, "I want you to imagine regaining your senses, and looking down at your girlfriend; the young lady you were attacking before I stopped you. Try to imagine that her whole body was a mess of fang and claw-marks, and that for the rest of your natural life, you had to live with the fact that it was you, and no one else, who was to blame for her death. Now, ask me why it matters one more time, if you can."

Sure enough, Barry's shame had resurfaced when Adam said those words, and he was looking at the floor with a somber expression on his face. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence between the two of them, Barry just muttered the rueful word "sorry," which made Adam feel even more relieved.

"I see you have a good imagination." Adam observed, though he still didn't dare to smile as he spoke, "Talbot had to go through something like that before he realized the terrible evil of lycanthropy, and committed himself to finding a cure for it. Honestly, though... I'm impressed by your willingness to listen to reason. Most werewolves have trouble doing that, especially at your age."

However, although Barry still looked ashamed of himself, he also seemed to be growing more curious with each passing moment, and it was only a matter of time before he voiced one of the questions that had clearly been traveling through his mind for a while.

"Adam... You talk like you've seen a lot of other werewolves."

"Too many." Adam replied, hoping that Barry wouldn't consider his reply an insult, but fortunately, the boy still looked too ashamed to really take offense, and a moment later, he asked another curious question.

"I guess I still don't know enough about werewolves." Barry admitted sadly, "but you... I mean, you seem like you know everything there is to know about them... I mean us... Me. I just... I have to know more. You understand, right? I have to know what I'm in for, Adam! You've gotta help me!"

Talking to any other werewolf, Adam would have felt suspicious of that request, but Barry had proven, again and again, that he was much more easily worried than any other werewolf Adam had ever met, so after thinking about it for a moment, he nodded, and started to explain everything he'd ever learned about werewolves, from the very start.

"The supernatural disease that transforms a person into a werewolf is called lycanthropy." Adam began, starting with the basics, "No one's really sure how Lycanthropy began, or where it originated. There are legends about ancient, druidic, pagan rituals that may have been responsible for it, but past a certain point, it grew too powerful, and they couldn't control it anymore. Modern lycanthropy is a dangerous disease, which is passed on through the fangs of each and every remaining werewolf, but even when it spreads, it takes a while for it to become really serious. When a person contracts lycanthropy, they start to notice their physical power and speed improving the following day, and maybe a new aggressive temptation or two appearing in their thoughts. However, it gets worse. The werewolf keeps growing stronger, faster and more aggressive until the night of the next full moon, when the disease reaches full maturity within them, and from that point on, they have to fight constantly to keep from snapping, and biting someone's head off, and not only that, but they can pass the disease on to others under certain conditions too."

Barry looked like he knew most of that already, but he still seemed very interested, because his next question was just as curious as his first.

"What kinds of conditions?"

"Once every month, at the full moon, lycanthropy changes those infected with it; taking its true, supernatural form." Adam replied sadly, "Werewolves undergo a physical and mental transformation at that point. Everything about them changes, even the structure of their muscles, hair and bones, and they take on the form of a vicious, wolf-like predator; a form much stronger and more feral than anything human. Under those conditions, any human bitten by the werewolf will contract lycanthropy as well, though again, it won't reach maturity in them for another month."

Barry was starting to nod slowly, as he soaked in all the new information, but he seemed to understand that there was more to it than just that.

"What about the tattoo on my hand? What about the thing that happens when I scrape the walls with my nails?"

Adam was starting to feel a little out of his depth at that point, however, because while he could give Barry some answers, there were others that he just didn't have.

"The mark on your hand is the pentagram; an occult symbol used in many pagan rituals." Adam explained, "A lot of prominent werewolves have them on their palms. In fact, that symbol has come to be viewed as the werewolf's mark. That's why I knew the truth about you as soon as I saw it. As for the way you use your nails like claws, though... I'm honestly not sure how you do that, but I do have a theory, if you're interested in hearing it."

Barry just nodded a moment later, looking as curious as ever, so Adam continued, still not daring to smile.

"Legends of beast-men, and other things like werewolves have been around for hundreds of years, on numerous continents," Adam explained slowly, "but not one of them was identicle to modern lycanthropy. Even the druidic legends I told you about didn't change their practitioners into monsters, exactly. They did transform, but as far as I can tell, they only looked like ordinary wolves. Some were a bit larger than normal, but none walked like men, the way the modern werewolf does. I think that what we now call lycanthropy is an increase in the old magic that was once used to change men into beasts, and back again; almost like some kind of supernatural mutation. If that's true, then the druids fell victim to something like a cross between evolution and divine judgment. They toyed with something they shouldn't have, and wound up losing control of it, when it grew beyond their original intentions. Werewolves have been at large since then, and if I'm right about this, the same thing might be happening all over again, right now."

"So... you're saying I might be some new mutation; something totally different from every other werewolf?" Barry asked, looking, fortunately, more horrified than thrilled by the idea, so Adam replied without hesitation.

"It's one possibility. One day, one werewolf learned to walk upright, and then, one day, a werewolf named Barry Hammerson began cutting stone with his bare nails. However, there might be more to it. No one knows how lycanthropy really operates anyway, so it's impossible to say for certain."

The look of shame on Barry's face hadn't faded in the slightest while Adam had been talking to him, but fortunately, he did seem to be growing more and more satisfied as they talked, and as disappointing as Adam's conversation with Nancy had been, it was nice to have the chance to cheer someone up for a change. Soon, Barry had another question to ask, and Adam couldn't help but smile when he heard it.

"You keep mentioning somebody named 'Talbot.' He was a werewolf too, right?"

"Larry Talbot was the first werewolf I ever met, and in spite of his curse, he spent most of his life searching for a cure. Our encounters were somewhat rocky, but I respected him a lot."

"Well..." Barry continued, looking as curious as ever, but not quite as nervous, "You know, I'd love to hear more about him. I mean, it's not like I've got anything else to do, and if you're not busy either, then..."

Though he still wasn't sure what was going to happen to him next, or when the aliens would make their next move, Adam was finally starting to feel as if he belonged somewhere, as he invited Barry into the nearest room, to tell him a story of excitement in older times.

* * *

Nancy had been fighting monsters and other threats for decade after decade, taking orders from some of the strictest commanders in the military, most of whom had been concerned with keeping her "on a short leash." She'd needed to deal with the demands of being both a military soldier and secret weapon, and also learn to tolerate the fact that she couldn't ever have her old life back. She could never go out and buy furs again, never get drunk with friends, never sit in a coffee shop and gripe about what a mess the world was in... The number of activities she missed from those days were nearly countless, and although the other soldiers of bunker thirty-two had done their best to be her friends, Nancy had suffered pretty badly, whenever she thought about all that had been lost. She was no stranger to tears, thanks to that. Still, it had been a while since she'd actually cried; so long, in fact, that she'd recently thought that she was done with it for good.

The moment that Nancy had closed the huge, metal door that led into her room, tears started to pour out of her eyes, and she put her face in her hands a moment later, thought she tried to stay silent as she mourned her lost humanity. There was always some pain, whenever she thought about those things, but it became especially bad when she knew that her tremendous size had cost her something very important; something she'd wanted desperately, but couldn't have.

Nancy had sat on the floor of her room, crying for a little while, not sure what else to do, but soon, she found herself being interrupted by the brush of friendly fur against her left hip, and turned to look at her long-time friend and roomate, who, when she was seated like that, came up to about the level of her eyes.

The giant gorilla named King Kong was standing almost upright at that moment, only hunched over a little bit. His knuckles weren't even resting on the ground, in fact, the way they usually did. On top of that, he had a look in his eyes, which, though very stern, also made him seem worried about her, as if he thought that someone was responsible for making her cry, and wanted to punish whoever had done it. It was one of the sweeter ways that Nancy had ever seen him act.

"Thank you, Kong," Nancy said, doing her best to smile and dry her tears, "but this isn't really anybody's fault. I was just... I was upset about something... something I can't do anymore. I'll get over it. Don't worry."

Kong seemed relieved by that remark, and started visibly smiling, but a moment later, he slapped both hands against the ground again with a crash, and started jumping up and down, repeatedly clapping his hands as he moved. Nancy wasn't really sure what to think at that point. She knew what those gestures meant, of course, but as for why he wanted to wrestle with her again, she couldn't exactly tell. Normally, his reason was only that he was feeling energetic and needed something to do, and yet, whenever the two of them wrestled, it always seemed to cheer Kong up. It wasn't impossible that he thought it might do the same for her. Whether that was really his motive or not, though, the thought alone made Nancy feel a little better.

"Alright. Alright." Nancy said with a smile, "We can wrestle once if you want, but you know you're just going to win again. It never turns out any different."

However, Kong didn't look like he was about to change his mind, and soon, the two were fighting, arms and legs hitting the walls and floor as they stomped across the room, crashing back and forth, and repeatedly seizing each other by the limbs, trying to make headway against one another in their fight. It lasted a bit longer than most of their previous matches, and Kong never seemed to stop smiling at any point while it was going on, but what Nancy found really astonishing was just how quickly her own tears vanished as their battle progressed. It wasn't that she was really enjoying the match, exactly, but rather, it was a type of struggle that she was used to, and compared to the time she'd spent contemplating what she'd lost, it was easier to take. That was why, for a few moments, Nancy decided to just follow the gorilla's lead, and lost herself in the fight.

* * *

Adam's talk with Barry had really raised his spirits quite a bit. As brutal as his lycanthropy had made him, it seemed that the boy's drive to learn hadn't quite been eradicated by it. Apparently, he'd been something of a computer nut before his transformation, and had been a very peaceful person, eager to grow in knowledge, and utterly unwilling to fight anything. In a way, it was too bad all of that had needed to happen to him, because he might have had a bright future in computer engineering or programming if it hadn't been for the werewolf that had apparently bit him. Then again, he might have also been cheated of a decent carreer by economic factors. There was no way to be certain. Still, Adam was beginning to care for Barry, almost like a son.

Of course, the one who Adam had really wanted to settle things with had been Nancy, but that hadn't ended well the last time he'd tried it, so for the moment, he decided to just leave her alone and hope she got herself into a better mood. He could hear the banging and crashing of whatever she was doing from halfway across the base, but Adam wasn't really too upset by the ruckus. Still, he wasn't sure what else to do, for the moment. He'd thanked Dobson for her gifts, talked to Nancy and Barry... He could have spoken with Dracula again, but he really didn't feel like doing that. Somehow, after all he'd seen of the technology of the aliens, he didn't seem like another meeting with the vampire lord would do much good just yet. However, that meant that Adam had to make a difficult choice; something that he'd been putting off for quite a while.

The enemies they'd faced had been a lot more powerful than Adam had originally expected them to be, and from the looks of things, they were only going to be stronger once they got serious. Adam had been watching many of his allies for a while, and aside from Dracula, he could see that they had a lot of potential they weren't using; especially Barry. In some cases, they just didn't seem to understand what they were really capable of, while in others, it was just a matter of having been caught up in the affairs of their own lives, and failing to notice opportunities to improve themselves. Still, Adam knew that he couldn't reprimand any of them for that, because it would have made him a miserable hypocrit.

Adam Frankenstein could tell that he had massive potential himself, and he knew what he had to do, in order to bring it out. In the past, he'd doubted that it was worth the sacrifice, but he couldn't afford to have those doubts anymore. Sacrifice was the very nature of love, and if he really wanted to be more like Nancy and Brieve, Adam decided, he had to start by making a tremendous sacrifice, and running the biggest risk of them all.

Soon, Adam had opened the small, metal door that led into the lab, and there was a sight in front of him that nearly blew him away. Half of the lab looked like it had been taken apart, and the one responsible was lying on her back on the floor, threading new cables and wires into a machine that looked something like a small jet engine. It took up quite a bit of room, and looked much too heavy for a tiny woman like Dobson to lift on her own, but then again, thanks to her bracers, Dobson was a lot stronger than she looked.

As soon as Adam entered the lab, however, the mad scientist stopped what she was doing with a start of alarm, and turned to look at him in surprise, then worry, as if she was truly shocked that he'd show up there again, after all she'd done for him. Still, Adam hadn't exactly kept his distrust of her a secret, and what he was about to do would probably surprise her even more.

"Doctor..." Adam said, looking at the machine she'd been working on for a moment, "Is this a good time to talk?"

However, Dobson's broad grin started returning when Adam asked her that, and immediately, she dropped both the cable and the connectors she'd been working with on the floor with a clang. It was the kind of action that spoke volumes.

"In that case, I'll just get right to the point." Adam said to her directly, "I haven't exactly trusted you since we first met, and I know you understand why. However, a while ago, you told me I had more potential than anyone. What kind of potential did you mean?"

At that point, though, Dobson's smile faded away, and she started to look contemplative again, as if she was searching for the best way to explain it.

"The thing is, I'm not exactly sure. I know you can absorb and channel mountains of electric power directly into your physical strength and speed, and by itself, that's impressive enough, but you might have other powers too; things I haven't even discovered yet. Unfortunately, your blood didn't give me all the answers I wanted; only a few."

However, that was when Adam asked one final question, which he was sure would get Dobson excited.

"Supposing that you wanted to find out the full extent of what I'm capable of... What kind of tests would you need to perform?"

Sure enough, the moment that Adam asked that question, Dobson's eyes opened much, much wider, and her smile was broader than Adam had ever seen it get before. He might have been just about to make a very bad choice, and yet, Adam decided, if he truly wanted to be the best he could be, he had to take that risk. For the moment, he was entrusting himself into the hands of a manic, mad scientist, but it was the only choice he really could have made.


	12. Chapter 12: Potential

Chapter 12: Potential

* * *

At first, Adam had been terrified when Dobson had started the tests, but as it turned out, most of them weren't invasive in nature. He was hooked up to various machines throughout the testing, but it seemed that Dobson hadn't needed to knock him out, or remove anything from him. For the most part, her tests consisted of telling him to use his powers repeatedly in several different ways, while her machines monitored his vital signs and other functions of his body. At the end, she did another blood test, and Adam was started to feel exhausted again. He'd been repeatedly expending his body's electricity throughout the testing, and he hadn't had the chance to recharge it, though he suspected that Dobson would take care of that once the testing was over. However, in that respect, he'd guessed wrong.

"Now, before we take the sensors off you, I want you to do one more thing for me." Dobson said from the computer terminal nearby, which she was manning, "Start running around the room, as fast as you can."

"Wh-what?" Adam gasped in exasperation, "I can barely stand up. My body's power is..."

"Who's the scientist around here?" Dobson asked, sounding more amused than irritated when she spoke, "Just jog it off."

Adam was sure that he was about to collapse, but at least, he thought, it was the last phase of her testing, and deep down inside, he really did want to rise to the challenge, so after just a moment, Adam Frankenstein was running full-tilt around the chamber they were in, making several laps of the large room every few seconds. He ran until his legs were aching, and his lungs felt like they were about to burst, but for some reason, something else was happening to him; something very unexpected. Although he was aching inside and out, Adam found that the haze of exhaustion was fading from his mind. He was stunned by that. In fact, he was so stunned, that he stopped right in his tracks, staring over at Dobson in amazement.

"How...?" Adam asked in bewilderment, but Dobson just began laughing in response; a high-pitched cackle that would have terrified Adam if he'd been a normal person, and even so, made him feel uneasy.

"Once I realized that you didn't usually need to recharge your power supply artificially, I knew you had a means of doing it naturally," Dobson explained, "and now, I know exactly how you do it. When you're in motion, your cells build up friction, and convert it into a bio-electric power supply. It probably wasn't too noticeable until now, but you've been draining your power so much recently, that your body is trying to compensate by increasing the speed at which it replenishes your power. On top of that, the charge in your body right now is stronger than in the samples I took from you before. Your powers are growing, Adam, and it's because you've been using them so much. As I said, you have mountains of potential. I still don't even know how much, but at least now, I know what you need to do, in order to bring it out."

"I have to keep using my powers almost nonstop." Adam realized aloud, but as it turned out, Dobson's advice was a bit more complicated than that.

"I'm very interested in seeing your real potential for myself, so here's what you should do..." Dobson said, smiling more brightly than ever, "First, use your electric powers as often as you can. When you get exhausted from that, start moving around a lot, and get a good physical workout. That should build up your power supply again, then rinse and repeat. Oh, and one more thing; while you're training your powers, keep trying to move your electric charge in different ways, and try to do it without the gloves. I'm sure you can; you just need some practice."

Adam was amazed as he listened to Dobson's training regiment. It all sounded fairly simple for someone with a creative mind like his. Suddenly, he had the chance to become even more powerful by a wide margin, and it was all thanks to Dobson. It felt a bit odd thinking that way, though, because the last person who'd really helped Adam to grow towards his full potential had been Brother Brieve, and as much as he'd learned to trust Dobson recently, Adam still didn't like the thought of lumping her in with that kindly monk. Still, he decided, she did deserve some kind of reward after all she'd done for him.

"Thank you." Adam said at last, drawing another look of surprise from the young genius, "I wish I could do something to pay you back for all this good advice."

However, Dobson was already waving the comment off, smiling more and more manically as she replied.

"Are you kidding? After all the data I got from you, you're asking how you can pay me back? I'm a scientist. Data is my currency, and you just paid me about a billion dollars worth of that. Believe me; I'm the one who got the most out of this deal."

Adam couldn't really bring himself to reply to that, although inside, he had to admit that they'd both benefited from Dobson's work. Still, he wasn't sure what else to say to her. She looked happier than he'd ever seen her, and yet, there was something wrong. He trusted Dobson more than ever, but there was still the sense that she was a very dangerous person. Somehow, Adam didn't feel right about working with her. However, that wasn't the only reason why he left just a few moments later, without saying another word.

* * *

Adam hadn't been missing from the lab for more than a couple of seconds before Dobson had moved over to the other side of the room, and opened a large jar, containing the gray powder that had once composed part of the alien ship. Every time Dobson looked at that powder, she felt the urge to chuckle to herself. Just as she'd suspected, the new age of monsters had proven to be a magnificent opportunity for learning and expanding her own personal power, and suddenly, not only had she learned more about signal feedback and bio-electric power than any person on Earth, but she was learning quite a bit about nanotechnology as well.

"Ah-hahahaha!" Dobson cackled to herself as she turned on her super-microscope to study the tiny, alien machines a bit further. Her knowledge and mastery of the universe was growing by leaps and bounds, and, she realized in delight, if things continued like that, it wouldn't be long before she could achieve her life's true dream.

Dobson continued muttering and cackling to herself as she studied the microscopic machines that the aliens had been using, far into the late hours of the night.

* * *

Nancy's fight with Kong had been over for a while, and she had to admit that she was feeling a lot better. Nothing about her life had really changed that much since the fight, but she was starting to look at her problems with a fresh perspective, and sometimes, that was all she needed. For one thing, the day before, she'd been worrying herself sick over the things she couldn't have, which was what had made her so miserable when she'd first fallen into the custody of the US military, and somehow, the change of scenery over the last few days had made her forget how she'd eventually recovered from that misery.

The important thing, Nancy had gradually remembered, was to keep thinking about the good things that she had. Still, she felt that she needed some form of contact with the outside world, so after a few minutes of thinking it over, Nancy had started walking around the base, looking for a newspaper. She'd once found newspapers depressing, but when they were the only way that she could find out about what was going on outside, they could almost be a relief.

Predictably, the last issue of the paper that Nancy was able to find in Dracula's mansion was just under a week old, but it still had its sports section intact, as well as a few sensational stories; all to do with the sports teams and inhabitants of London. Nancy found herself reading that paper for a while, squinting just a bit until she could see the print on the pages, but in the end, one famous name caught her eye in the first few pages of the paper, before the sports section; a name that she'd heard more than once in recent years.

"Sir Gregory Archer, former head of the British Library, and self-made corporate multi-millionaire has long been one of Britain's most controversial citizens. Though granted numerous awards and honors by her majesty, he has frequently stunned other citizens with his outspoken and aggressive viewpoint on immigration restrictions; particularly from unfriendly nations. Sir Archer has drawn particular fire for his viewpoint that certain belief systems cannot be integrated into a civilized society, and that not everyone can be counted on to work for the benefit of the nation in which they live." Nancy read aloud with a smile on her face, "Way to go, Greg!"

Gregory was, as far as Nancy knew, the last of the relatives who she'd known before her transformation, and by far the most successful in society. He'd been born in England, become a financial success in America, moved his operations across Europe as well, and eventually started living in the United Kingdom again. Of course, all of that had made it much easier for Nancy to hear about him while the Earth's power had still been working. Even while she'd been living in bunker thirty-two, Nancy had continued to receive reports on how her surviving relatives were doing, and it was hard for her to believe, after all that time, that Sir Gregory was the same little Greg she'd once seen in an off-white crib at one of her family's thanksgiving parties. He was her second cousin, having grown into a very old and powerful man, while Nancy still looked just the same as she had all that time ago, except, of course, for the fact that she was fifty feet tall. For a few moments, Nancy stopped to wonder if Greg ever spared her any thought; if he ever missed her, or even remembered her at all, but then, those questions came to a screeching halt, as Nancy read the next line of that article.

"However, Sir Archer's controversial career recently ended in tragedy. He was found dead this past Monday, on the grounds of his estate, apparently of food poisoning. This should underscore, once again, the vital importance of proper food-processing in..."

However, the amateurish rantings of the newspaper reporter didn't interest Nancy at all. The only thing that mattered to her was what she'd read already. Little Greg; the last of the people she'd personally met while she was a normal-sized woman, had died, and she was a little surprised by how that news made her feel.

On the one hand, Nancy had known for years that she'd never have the chance to see her second cousin in person again, and yet, there was a deep sense of loss that she hadn't felt in decades; not even when she'd heard about the deaths of her other relatives. It was almost as if someone had been invisibly following her around all her life, and then suddenly, they were gone, and she was alone. It was a tragic feeling by nature; worse than anything she'd felt since she'd first learned that she couldn't return to her family, and yet, there was also a brand new feeling, as though, for the first time in years, she had a mountain of responsibilities to shoulder, and Nancy couldn't even tell why that was. She just knew that she felt lonelier than she had in years, and she needed to talk about it.

In fact, Colonel Archer slowly realized, it would have been better if she'd talked about her feelings with someone years before, but she'd been too scared to get close to anyone in bunker thirty-two, and her fears had been so numerous, and blended together for so long, that she'd long since stopped trying to figure out what, exactly, she was afraid of. Still, in that base full of dangerous monsters, she knew that she had to finally get past her fears, and start opening up once in a while, so the big question was, who was she going to open up to?

* * *

Dobson carefully stuck a third engine onto the back of her latest machine, pleased by just how quickly the production phase was coming along. The large network of connected metal parts was already about the size of a truck, and, she noted, if she just kept working the way she had been in the past, it would probably be finished within a couple of days. It wasn't the only preparation she wanted to make, but it was one of the most important.

However, just as Dobson's engine test finished up, she heard a voice from her left; a voice that boomed out, as if coming through a loudspeaker, except from too many directions at once, and Dobson recognized that voice, though she'd only met the giantess in person once or twice.

"Doctor Dobson? Are you there?"

The voice was coming from behind a nearby door. Like all of the lab's doors, it was only about eight feet tall, so nothing enormous was going to get in or out through it, but Dobson pulled it open anyway, and sure enough, on the other side of that door, she was greeted by a face as big as she was, positioned almost directly sideways. Archer had needed to get down on her hands and knees, and press her head against the ground in order to look inside the lab door, and anyone else would have had the decency not to laugh at the odd position she was in, just outside of the lab, but not Stephanie Dobson. She was the kind of person who laughed at the drop of a hat.

Of course, as soon as Dobson started laughing, Nancy began scrambling to her feet again, looking a bit indignant. She didn't seem to know how the bespectacled scientist really felt about her, but then, they hadn't exactly talked much since Nancy had arrived at the base. Still, a moment later, the giantess seemed to have decided that a little laughter wasn't really worth arguing over, or even mentioning, and she got right to the point of her visit.

"Doctor Dobson..." Nancy began over the sound of continuing chuckles from the unusual scientist, "I need to talk to somebody."

However, Dobson's reply to that question made Nancy almost feel like punching a wall, because there was something about Miss Dobson that seemed callous in the extreme.

"Do I look like a shrink to you?"

"Excuse me?" Nancy asked angrily, bending down just a little, so that Dobson could get a better look at her face, "What did you just say to me?"

"I study science; measurable facts, not emotions." Dobson replied without the slightest hint of fear in her voice, in spite of the impressive size of the woman towering over her, "I could understand why you'd ask me to listen to you if I was your friend, but we haven't even said two words together in private since I first met you, and I'm sure no psychiatrist. Unless you want me to help you figure your powers out, there's really no point in talking to me."

Understandably, Nancy was more angry than ever at that point, and there was a moment when it seemed that she might actually try to step on Dobson. After all, she was definitely the biggest operative at that base, and Dobson was definitely the smallest. Still, Nancy was a soldier, and she must have known that in an army, no matter how you were treated, you didn't step on your fellow soldiers. It was clear that she was having trouble composing herself, however, and a few moments later, she spoke again; her every word like ice.

"I suppose I thought you'd be more caring than that."

"I don't have time to be caring." Dobson replied, turning to head back into the lab again, "I've got research to do."

Then, the lab door closed, and it was all that Nancy could do to keep from kicking it wide open again.

* * *

Since he'd first been recruited by Dracula, Adam had spent almost no time in the room that had been assigned to him, partly because he was so glad to have the freedom to spend time with others who he cared about, and partly because his room was relatively small, and didn't have any windows on any of the walls. Of course, underground, that was just practical, but there could have at least been a window to let him see what was going on in the adjoining hallway.

Adam's room was actually furnished very well,f though. It had two large, soft chairs, a couch, a dining area with a small table, a counter to prepare food at, a sink, a bathroom, and another small, empty room with lime-green carpeting inside. It wasn't his favorite color, but at least the place was sufficient to satisfy his bodily needs. Still, it was a lonely place; not unlike the wilderness he'd spent so long roaming through, except without the fresh air and open spaces. Regardless, though, it was private, and there were worse places to practice in the use of his newly-discovered powers.

Adam had been repeatedly trying to bring forth the lightning he'd used to deflect the alien beam weapons on board the spaceship of their recent attackers. He didn't have any trouble doing it with his gloves on, and yet, when he removed them, it wasn't anywhere near as easy. The most he could manage, for the moment, was to produce a spark or two in between his fingertips. Still, he was doing his best to improve on that, and he knew that he couldn't give up, no matter what.

Soon, Adam had begun to produce sparks more frequently; two in rapid succession, then three. He'd gotten all the way up to five when he heard the sound of something very large hitting the wall outside of his room several times in a row. It almost sounded as if King Kong had decided to start smashing the wall with his fists, so Adam jumped to his feet and opened the door, and a moment later, he was glad that he had. Nancy was standing outside, with one fist right next to the wall, looking very red in the face, and yet, Adam could tell that she wasn't really angry at him anymore. Obviously, the banging noise had been Nancy's tremendous knuckles, knocking on the wall, but before Adam could even ask her what the problem was, she started quickly explaining herself.

"Adam..." Nancy said stiffly, straightening up as he stood in the doorway of his room, looking up at her in amazement, "I'm sorry about the way I acted just a little while ago. I know you just wanted to help me out, but... I was afraid that..."

For a moment, it seemed as though Nancy was struggling with how to make her next statement, but Adam didn't make any suggestions. He just watched her carefully, waiting for her to arrive at a decision, and hoping that she'd finally explain her reasoning.

"Well, I apologize, anyway." Nancy said at last with a frown, "I should have been clearer with you."

"Then you really do find me hideous." Adam concluded, but in that instance, it seemed that his insight wasn't quite perfect after all.

"Adam, I stopped caring how people look on the outside years ago. You could weigh a thousand pounds and be covered in wrinkles, and it wouldn't make a difference to me."

Of course, it was a big relief to hear that, though it was a bit hard to believe at first. However, what Nancy said next seemed even more bizarre.

"Honestly, Adam, the whole reason I didn't want to talk to you was because I was scared."

"Scared?" Adam asked in surprised, "You were really scared of me?"

"Well, no. I mean, sort of. Not exactly." Nancy said, though she'd stopped stammering, and seemed as if she was just trying to explain something very complicated with a limited selection of words at her disposal, "I've been scared of a lot of things, really, and it'd be hard to explain them all, even if I wanted to. I was afraid you'd always think of me as just another monster; like you'd see my size and nothing else, just like most people do. I was scared you wouldn't really care about me like that, and I knew I couldn't trust you unless you really cared about me. On top of that, I've kind of gotten out of the habit of talking to people about how I feel, because... Well, at bunker thirty-two, most people were trustworthy, but the folks who actually came down to my containment chamber to talk to me kept changing. Every once in a while, one of them would get transferred to one of the higher floors, or have to go out on some mission, or die, or retire, and I'd wind up having to adjust to somebody new, who didn't know a thing about me or my past. I guess... I guess that's not as much of a problem with you, is it?"

However, Adam already cared enough about Nancy, that he knew he needed to be honest with her.

"It might be. There's always the chance that someone or something could kill me someday, and then you'd need to find someone else to talk to. However, no one's going to transfer me away from you, and I don't think I'll die of old age either."

However, Nancy wasn't replying just yet, as if she was waiting for something, and after only taking a moment to think about it, Adam knew precisely what that was.

"As for not really caring about you as a person, there's no chance of that." Adam continued firmly, after only a couple of seconds, "When I told you about how you impressed me on our first day here in this base, I was thinking about who you really were; what kind of decisions you'd made, and how you'd chosen to act. That's at the very core of your personhood. Thinking about you as anything else would just be a waste. That's where your real value is; your ability to care about others."

For a moment, Nancy just looked confused by what Adam had said, but soon, her puzzled expression gave way to a shy smile again, and Frankenstein's monster could tell that even if she hadn't really understood all of what he'd just said, she'd at least taken the sentiment well.

"You talk like a poet, Adam." Nancy said at last, "I wish I'd known somebody like you when I was younger. It would have made a big difference in my life."

At first, Adam wasn't sure how to reply to that, but at last, he just smiled a bit, and asked "What difference do a few decades make between friends?"

At that point, however, Nancy leaned over in Adam's direction, bracing her arms against the wall, and moving her face closer to him, until he could almost have reached right up and touched her nose. Still, that obviously wasn't her intention, and Adam could tell just why she was acting that way. Nancy was trying to figure Adam out, and yet, she wouldn't have been happy if he'd just explained himself to her again. Women, Adam thought, were very mysterious creatures, with many conflicting desires, and yet, he couldn't help but respect Nancy on more than one level. She'd been deprived so badly of the life she'd once had, that she'd learned almost total selflessness the hard way; the very thing that Adam had always needed, since he'd first been abandoned, and left to fend for himself. On top of that, she'd recently saved his life, and he couldn't ignore that either. He really owed her a lot, and she must have understood that. Still, she looked surprised by the way he was treating her, and in just another moment, she said something that Adam hadn't expected to hear from her at all, just because it was so much bolder than anything else she'd said up to that point.

"Adam, there's something I need to get out in the open air right now. Somebody I used to know died recently, and they were the only other person I'd ever met when I was still... Well, small. I used to depend on news from outside to get me through every single day, but now, I can't do that anymore, and... Well, frankly, I don't think I can live with being totally isolated. If I told you that I wanted to think of you as... well, as a family member from now on, would that be alright with you?"

"Of course." Adam replied, not needing any time at all to think it over, "I'll always be here for you, Nancy. I promise."

Then, however, Nancy Archer did something else that Adam had never expected her to. In a single sweeping motion, she'd scooped him up off the ground in one of her hands, and soon, he found himself being pressed against the side of her face. Of course, it was the closest thing to a friendly hug that she could give to somebody as small as Adam, but in spite of how strange he himself was, Adam still found the experience a bit weird. When she placed him back on the ground, though, he noticed the one thing that was really important; Nancy was smiling brightly again, and her professional attitude had returned, because a moment later, she straightened up, as if she were standing at attention for a general again, and the next words she said to Adam were a very big encouragement.

"Adam, you said just a little while ago that you owed me a big debt, because I'd given you support when you needed it. Well, now we're even. I promise, even when all of this is over; even if the aliens never come back, and I wind up working for the US army again, I'll never forget you. It may not seem like you've done much for me, but it's enough, Adam. It's enough."

Then, so quickly that Adam was nearly knocked over by the sudden gust of wind, Nancy turned on her heel and started off down the corridor at almost a sprint. However, just then, Adam Frankenstein noticed something that sent a chill through his heart, and immediately, he was moving as quickly as he could, dashing in Nancy's direction again, and praying that he was going to be in time.

Nancy still looked very distracted as she carelessly ran through the giant hallway, without watching where she was going, and that was the problem. Doctor Stephanie Dobson was just turning the corner at an equally-energetic sprint, and she was right in Nancy's path.

Quickly, Adam barreled towards the place where Nancy looked like she was just about to step on Dobson, but she was already so far away, that he was sure he couldn't catch up to her in time. For a moment, he tried to shout to Nancy, but although she heard him, she didn't seem to realize what the problem was, and there just wasn't enough time to explain it. Adam didn't even have a second to think of a plan, but he knew that in moments, Dobson and Nancy, who'd both done so much for him, were about to suffer a horrible fate. If he couldn't stop them, Dobson would die, and Nancy would be to blame for it. Adam knew that he had to be able to beat Nancy to Dobson, which meant that he needed more speed, no matter what it took. He had to travel faster, and that, for the moment, was all that mattered.

However, just then, all three of them were shocked by the sound of rolling thunder, which filled the whole hallway, and echoed throughout most of the base. Suddenly, everything was in chaos. Dobson fell to the floor, Adam collided hard with a wall, and Nancy stopped in her tracks, looking horrified and bewildered. By the time they'd all gotten their bearings back, both Nancy and Dobson were staring at Adam in amazement, because although he was bruised all over from his collision with the wall, there was something else about him that was different. Sparks of electric power were appearing in between his hands at regular intervals, and he wasn't even wearing Dobson's gloves anymore. On top of that, he'd somehow managed to propel himself all the way across the hallway, past both Archer and Dobson, and into the far wall, startling both of them into stopping, knocking Dobson to the ground, and just managing to prevent a fatal collision between the two. It seemed as if he'd just saved them both from an unenviable fate, and uncovered some kind of new power in the process, though what kind of power, or how it worked, no one seemed to know. For a few moments, they all just stood there, stunned, and not daring to move, but when a few more seconds had passed, it was Dobson who spoke first, scrambling quickly to her feet.

"Adam!" she exclaimed without bothering to thank him for his effort, "I found out something really important when I went over your test results again."

For a couple of moments, Adam just stared at Dobson, as if she had three heads. After having just been in mortal danger, and having been saved from it in a very dramatic and surprising way, the bizarre woman still didn't seem able to think about anything but her recent discoveries, and that was something that Adam found more than a little worrying. It was yet another unsettling aspect of Dobson's personality. Still, he just nodded to Dobson a moment later, not even wanting to say a word to her at that point.

"There's more than just electrical energy inside you, Adam; there's something else; some other energy-like thing that I've only seen a few times before, and never like this. Have you been in contact with any odd power sources?"

"Yes." Adam replied without a moment's hesitation, "I've seen a lot of strange magic over the last few days alone, and I hooked myself up to the power source of the alien ship before it fell apart. There was some very pure energy in there."

However, Dobson was starting to shake her head, because it seemed that wasn't what she'd meant at all.

"No. The power source your absorbed was just a highly-organized electrical force. It was special, but nothing that would cause this. As for magic... Well, I admit I don't know as much about it as I'd like to, but I doubt it would be responsible for this either."

"So what's the problem?" Adam asked, feeling very concerned already. Sure enough, Dobson was looking especially grave when she replied.

"I've done some experiments on the dead and dying before..." Dobson admitted without the slightest bit of shame, "The human body gives off a surge of energy at the moment of death; a specific kind of energy, of one type and frequency, which I still haven't been able to duplicate in any experiment. Adam, your whole body has that very kind of energy traveling through it. It's very faint, which is probably why I didn't notice it at first, but..."

"Well, I'm undead, in a sense." Adam replied with a casual shrug, "That energy could just represent some rare convergence between life and death; something that only happens when a person dies, or when they're brought back to life, like I was."

However, Dobson was shaking her head again already.

"I don't buy it." she replied, "That's not a scientific explanation. All energy needs a source. It doesn't just pop into existence under certain conditions. On top of that, there was one other thing. There's something about your left arm, that's different from the rest of your body. The muscle structure doesn't look right."

"I've never had any trouble with it." Adam replied, looking down at his arm for a moment. It was definitely the larger of the two, and a little bulkier as well, with a more defined elbow and bicepts, but Adam didn't usually give much thought to where his individual body parts had come from, any more than Dobson probably did.

"I didn't say it was going to give you trouble." Dobson replied, "I just said it was different from every other part of your body. I just thought you might want to know about that, just in case something happens. I still have no idea just where Victor managed to find such perfect parts for your body. It wouldn't surprise me if he traveled all over Europe to get them."

Then, without another word to Adam or Nancy, Dobson just turned around, as if to head back to her lab, when suddenly, there was a sharp tremor that shook the base. Even Nancy looked like she'd almost been thrown off-balance by the shaking, and none of them even needed to look at one another again, to realize just what needed to be done.

As quickly as they could, both Frankenstein and Dobson headed for the base's main entrance, with Nancy following a bit more slowly behind, having learned her lesson from just a few moments ago. Before long, Adam was digging his hands into the wall again, vaulting himself up the metal surface with swift lunges of his arms. Dobson seemed to be punching some commands into the bracer on her right wrist, and when Adam got back to the ground floor of Dracula's mansion, he wasn't too surprised to find her waiting for him there. What did surprise him was who he found when he got to the mansion's front door and flung it open.

Lying on the front steps of Dracula's mansion, there was a figure that seemed to be made from a combination of flesh, sand and broken glass. It was Imhotep, and he looked as if he'd really been taken apart by someone or something. Half of his face seemed to be decomposing on its own, and he was only moving just enough to convince Adam that he was still alive.

However, what really surprised Adam was the figure who was standing behind the ancient mummy. He was tall and imposing; dressed in gold, gemstones and fine cloth, and his muscles were very powerfully-built. However, in a way, he looked even more patchwork than Adam, because his entire head looked like it belonged to an ibis, and his arms were glowing with a pale light, like some kind of artificial moonbeams. Adam felt his blood run cold at the sight, and soon, the bizarre figure opened its beak, and the voice that issued forth from it echoed throughout the sky, trembling with rage as it spoke.

"What is the meaning of this desecration? Answer me!"


	13. Chapter 13: Ibis of the Moon

Chapter 13: Ibis of the Moon

* * *

Adam couldn't really have offered any kind of answer to the strange being's demand. Frankly, he didn't know much about the magic that had been used to resurrect Imhotep, nor did he have any personal reason to defend the mummy. He'd tried to calm the odd creature down with a few words, which he'd thought were sensible, but suddenly, he was in mid-air, hurtling upwards through the clouds, hanging onto the ibis-headed man's throat for dear life, and doing his best to endure its continual, furious attacks.

Adam could have sworn he'd seen a man with the head of an ibis somewhere in an old book, but he knew that he didn't have time to ponder it over. The monster was lashing out against him with unbelievable speed as they rocketed through the air together, swinging both arms as it moved. By that point, the being's arms and legs had both begun to glow with pale light, and Adam could feel the power being drained out of him every time the creature struck with one of its fists. He didn't know where that creature had come from, or where it had gotten such terrifying powers. He didn't even know how its abilities worked, exactly, but he knew that if his strength gave out up there, he was going to fall to his death. One way or another, Adam decided, he wanted to at least take that pompous monster with him.

Quickly, Adam tightened his grip on the monster's throat. It was like trying to crush a rock in his bare hands, but it seemed to be giving just a little, and before long, the creature started hammering Adam with punches aimed at his midsection.

The creature with the ibis head clearly had the power to fly freely in whatever direction it wanted to at jarring speeds, and was using it to carry Adam upward, gaining a vast terrain advantage. Still, Adam could see one major weakness to that tactic, and in only a moment, he'd braced both feet against the monster's upper legs, pushing his torso out of the way of its latest punch, and putting even more strain on its neck, which he continued to clutch tightly. Then, with the creature thrown off-balance by all the sudden motion, and the failure of its latest attack, Adam drove his head forward as hard as he could, smashing the monster with a powerful head butt, and knocking it back; causing it to lose its balance completely. Soon, both fighters were plummeting back towards the ground again, and as the dark, grassy property of London's wealthier inhabitants rushed up to meet them from below, Adam found himself, for a moment, wishing that he could have lived just a little while longer; especially after all that had passed between himself and the others.

However, about midway to the ground, Adam felt his strength returning, and remembered that he couldn't afford to give up, no matter how hopeless things looked. Whether he was outmatched or not, he needed to have the inner strength to keep struggling. His life had seemed lonely and empty in the past, but he still wanted to live, and no odds, he decided, would make him back down.

In moments, Adam had let go of the monster's neck with his left hand and wrapped that same hand around the top of its entire head. Then, he started slugging it again, until it flinched just a little. Using that tiny bit of leeway, Adam used his other hand to grab the creature's arm, pinning it down, and started to spin both of them around in mid-air. He wasn't sure his idea would work, but he couldn't think of anything else that could save him at that point, and the ground was still approaching fast.

At the last second, as Adam plummeted downward, he managed to push the monster down beneath him, and braced both arms against its chest, praying for a miracle. Suddenly, however, he saw the whole terrain beneath him changing, as if a whole new section of land had just been slid into place over the one he'd been plummeting towards, though in another moment, he knew, he wouldn't care.

The whole world seemed to be shaking as the impact hit the monster underneath Adam, traveling through him too, but at that point, something happened that he hadn't expected. Instead of making an impressive crater on the ground, Adam soon found himself in the air again, yanked loose from the strange creature that had attacked him, and for a moment, he heard a deafening sound, echoing through the sky, just like the voice of the monster, except higher in pitch, and more familiar to him. It was a booming cry of pain and shock, and it was coming from Nancy Archer.

Quickly, Adam's mind raced to get a handle on the situation, but he was up to the task. He could tell that the "terrain" that he and the creature had come crashing down on had been Nancy herself, trying to cushion their fall, and even to someone as big as her, a collision like that one had to have hurt. Furthermore, he could tell that Nancy was still right underneath him, and a moment later, when he fell back down, seizing a section of her uniform to keep from losing his balance, he only had a moment or two to prepare before he was under attack again.

The monster had charged through the air, seizing Adam by one arm, but that time, he was ready for it, and he had no intention of being carried away again. Quickly, he hooked one of his boots into a button-hole on Nancy's uniform, and thus anchored, he went on the attack himself, grabbing the other arm of the monster that was still trying to kill him. Soon, the two were wrestling ferociously, each struggling to gain even a tiny bit of ground against the other. Adam didn't have the sheer power that the monster with the bird-head did, but he was proving to be fairly good at developing techniques to combat powers like those, and in terms of pure, physical strength, he was surprised to find that they weren't really that different. The beast might have been a bit stronger, Adam thought to himself, but certainly nothing compared to the sheer brute force of the Gill-man. Soon, with one last effort, he'd shoved both of the monster's hands out to the sides, and driven his foot into the creature's chest, knocking it back, and clearly doing some damage.

However, at that point, Nancy was starting to sit up. Adam grabbed the cloth of her uniform as quickly as he could, lowering himself to the ground before she could finish getting to a seated position, and by that point, she'd swung one arm around, swatting the ibis-headed monster out of the air. It hit the ground hard a moment later, although after what he'd just seen, Adam was sure that wouldn't damage it too badly.

Sure enough, a moment later, the creature had shot up into the air again, its voice seeming to shake the whole countryside the next time it spoke, and its words chilled Adam Frankenstein to the very core.

"You have no authority, giant! Stay out of this!"

Nancy looked like she was about to shout at the flying monster in fury, but suddenly, the light around its arms started growing brighter, and Adam had a strong suspicion that it was going to begin using a new power. However, what was really surprising was just how little damage that power seemed to be doing.

Sure enough, the light emanating from the creature's arms was almost covering Nancy's whole body, but it wasn't really damaging anything or anyone. A moment later, however, she started to look exhausted, then dizzy, and at last, both of her eyes just closed on their own, and she toppled backward, hitting the ground with a crash, and shaking the landscape all around. Adam only had a moment after that to react, as his strange, new enemy charged towards him again, still shining with what looked disturbingly like moonlight, but he'd learned something important from what the creature had just done.

At first, Adam hadn't been sure whether the ibis-creature had really been draining power away from him before, or whether it had just been hitting him hard enough to make him feel that way, but when Nancy Archer had fallen to the ground, it had made the truth perfectly obvious; the light that surrounded his new adversary was some kind of energy, which decreased or absorbed other kinds of energy somehow. He wouldn't have anticipated an attack like that, but having seen it in action, Adam was at least starting to realize just what kind of danger he was facing, and on top of that, he knew that the only reason the beings attacks hadn't already knocked him out, was that the amount of energy in his body was much higher than a normal person's.

Soon, Adam and the monster were grappling with each other again, and the more he stayed in contact with it, the weaker he felt himself becoming. However, he knew that it was just because his energy was being drained away, and Dobson had given him a partial solution to that kind of problem already.

"When you get exhausted... start moving around a lot, and get a good physical workout."

Adam remembered Dobson's words vividly as he fought with his bizarre enemy. It still might not work, he thought, but it was the only thing he could think to try.

Quickly, Adam Frankenstein started shoving his enemy backwards again along the ground, moving his legs back and forth as he did so, much more quickly than he needed to, and in moments, he could feel some of his power returning, even as his enemy struggled to use its own energy to subdue him. However, although he found his strength coming back, he also lost his balance a moment later, and his enemy eagerly took advantage of his momentary weakness, seizing him around the torso, and hurling him upwards again.

Adam still refused to give up, but he had to admit that things were looking worse and worse for him. After all, if the monster tried to shoot him with its strange energy again, he'd have a hard time dodging it in mid-air.

* * *

Dobson had been watching the fight in amazement for most of the last few seconds, and had needed to explain what was going on to Nancy in a hurry when she'd first emerged from the underground sections of Dracula's base. However, Adam and the ibis-monster had both been moving so fast, that Dobson had been having a hard time even keeping track of what was going on, or how high they'd risen into the air. That was only made worse, naturally, by the fact that the sun had set hours ago, so the only light to see by, aside from the lights coming out of her bracers, was the moonlight descending on them from above, and from the monster's extremities, and that wasn't nearly as bright as it could have been. At first, Dobson had been worried that she wouldn't even get the chance to help out at all. Still, she'd pulled a small vial from one of the pockets of her lab coat, downing the foul concoction inside, just in case. In moments, she could feel the ingenious formula at work in her system, gradually changing every cell in her body; the changes spreading outwards, to the clothes and equipment she was wearing, just as she'd designed them to. In moments, she found that once again, she was completely and totally invisible.

Invisibility was nothing new, of course. The process of turning a living being invisible had been around for almost a hundred years, and had finally been perfected by a man named Doctor Jack Griffin. However, he'd never quite managed to develop the formula needed to undo his handy work, and turn an invisible man visible again. That, Dobson was proud to say, was all her own doing. On top of that, the clothing and equipment that she was wearing had been specially designed to adapt to the changes in her body; it was part of the custom cybernetics system she'd crafted for herself. Griffin had never been able to turn his clothes invisible too, but then, he had accomplished a surprising amount, all things considered, and Dobson was sure that she wouldn't have been able to discover the same secrets if it hadn't been for the work he'd already done in the field. He wasn't the only brilliant mind she'd ever learned from, of course, but she did owe a great many of her own discoveries to his success.

Quickly, Dobson removed a couple of parts from her left bracer, and started attaching them to her right. The lights on her left bracer immediately turned off as she yanked out the power supply, but it was necessary. She didn't have any other long-ranged weapons on her, and if she wanted to hit that fast-moving monster with anything, she knew that it had to be something with some range to it.

For a while, Nancy and Adam seemed to be keeping the beast busy, but soon, Nancy was down, and Adam was grappling with it again, looking every moment as though he was losing ground. In what seemed like no time, the monster tossed Adam into the air, and that, Dobson knew, was her chance. Immediately, she pulled out the machine that she'd made by hooking up her bracer to two power supplies at once, stuck a heat pellet into the back of each and fired.

The blast of concentrated heat shot forth from Dobson's makeshift weapon with the speed of a genuine bullet, traveling right in the direction of their new enemy. However, at the last second, he seemed to notice the new angle that he was under attack from, and spun his hand around, shining with the same pale light that he'd used to attack Adam and Nancy a moment before, and as Dobson watched in amazement, he simply knocked the heat ray to one side, where it hit the ground, sizzling as it melted dirt and rock for almost a yard around, and set the grass on fire for quite some distance beyond that. However, the being with the ibis head didn't look impressed; just annoyed.

Still, although Dobson's attack hadn't been able to defeat their new enemy, it had opened him up to attack from another angle. Just a moment later, with visible electricity crackling around his hands, Adam came down hard on his foe, slugging him back and forth across the property; not letting up for even a moment. He clearly remembered what it had felt like to be dangled in mid-air by that creature; unable to even get a decent footing for himself, and had no intention of ever letting that happen again. It looked as if Adam was finally about to win his battle, and he'd most likely grow even more skilled from the experience, but just at that point, Dobson heard the sound of two other people approaching from behind, and when she turned to look, she saw, in relief, that they were Barry and the Gill-man, both looking furious about what was going on there, but neither one seeing her, of course, and for the moment, she was happy to keep it that way, because honestly, she was still curious about how their powers worked, and wanted to see them in action. After all, when it came down to it, she was still a scientist before she was anything else, and the purpose of all true science was to learn.

However, as the Gill-man and Barry got closer to where Adam and the monster were fighting, something new began to happen; something that Dobson hadn't been expecting at all, in spite of everything that she already knew about those combatants. The light around the monster's arms had flared up again, and just as he was about to lash out, striking Adam across the face, Barry stopped where he was. Both Dobson and the Gill-man turned to stare at him in worry, as the young werewolf started trembling, freezing up, and looking almost as though he was having some kind of seizure, but of course, that wasn't the problem at all. Barry Hammerson's whole body was growing larger, his hands and feet spreading out longer, and his nails transforming. However, Dobson still didn't really understand what was happening to him, until fur began to sprout from every inch of bare skin on his body, and his face started to change its shape completely. Somehow, the light that the monster was using to power its attacks was the same kind of light that forced Barry Hammerson to transform; the light of the full moon.

* * *

Adam's heart had been pounding like a bongo drum since the very moment that the fight had started, and although he'd grown more determined as he'd been fighting, it hadn't really made him feel any less worried. Still, very few things could have worried him more than what he saw when he looked over his enemy's shoulder. The Gill-man was trying to seize a dark, furry figure by the wrists, and there was no mistaking what that figure was. Its jaws were still transforming, jutting out further and further, but Adam knew who it was, regardless. It was Barry Hammerson, and at the worst possible time, he was taking his fully-monstrous form.

Quickly, Adam tried to toss his opponent to one side, in the hopes of doing something about Barry before he could hurt anyone, but it seemed that his enemy had been preparing a counter-attack, and in just a moment, had driven his shining fists into Adam's midsection. Of course, it was painful in a way, but what really dazed Adam at that point, was how exhausted the punches had made him feel. With that simple blow, the beast had almost totally floored him, and Barry still needed his help.

However, by the time Adam managed to launch another attack again the long-beaked monster, charging his punch with as much raw energy as he could, Barry's transformation was complete, and with a chilling howl, he'd braced his legs against the Gill-man's chest, wrenching himself loose from the strong creature's grasp, to land on the grass a few feet away. Then, in one swift maneuver, he vaulted himself forward again, swinging his claws in a wide arc, and the Gill-man fell back almost at once, screaming in agony from the massive claw-wounds that had covered the front of his torso.

Adam had seen the Gill-man heal from worse than that, of course, but it meant that, for the moment, he was out of the action. Suddenly, there were two dangerous monsters on that lawn, either one capable of competing with Adam in terms of sheer strength and power. It was a really bad situation, and, Adam realized as the werewolf began charging towards the two visible combatants in a mad rage, he only had one chance to get out of it alive.

Once again, Adam quickly spun around, swinging his opponent through the air, and was gratified, a moment later, to hear the sound of the werewolf's claws driving into the monster he'd been fighting with. Quickly, he tried to back away from the ibis monster and the werewolf, hoping that the two would start focusing on each other, but what happened then only looked like it was going to make matters worse, because the ibis monster's next act had been to fire his moon-beams directly at Barry.

As Adam had suspected, the moon-beams didn't tired Barry out the way they had Nancy or himself. In fact, the moment they hit him, they started to change shape, condensing and warping, until finally, the moon-beam had vanished entirely, and for some reason, Barry's whole body have begun to give off a bright glow. Then, he opened his mouth again, and the howl that ushered forth from it was so loud and jarring, that Adam had to cover both of his ears for his own protection. He was truly terrified at that point, but not of the ibis monster anymore. When he'd heard that howl, echoing through the air all around him, it had almost made him feel like he was about to be driven mad. Somehow, the ibis creature had done something to Barry; something that had mutated his lycanthropy even further, and it was only going to make him much more dangerous. Just how dangerous, though, even Adam had no idea.

In less than a second, Barry had charged forward, surrounded by what looked like fire, and swept his claws through the air, making an ear-splitting sound, like a glacier being broken wide open, and just like that, the creature that had knocked down Nancy and nearly killed Adam had been shattered into several pieces, each falling to the ground with a sickening thud; its energies seeming to seep outward from its gruesome remains, causing the grass all around it to just start dying on its own. However, Barry didn't look like he was getting any weaker. In fact, the muscles of his shoulders and upper arms had grown visibly since the ibis creature had died, and in just another moment, he let out another ear-splitting howl, and shot backwards, towards what looked like an empty section of the field.

* * *

Dobson hissed slightly as the werewolf charged directly towards her, surrounded by intense flame as it moved. She'd suspected that Barry probably could have located her by scent, but for some reason, she hadn't expected him to lash out against her so suddenly, or so ferociously, and after what she'd just seen him do, she knew that she didn't have a prayer of defending herself from him in a fight, which meant that she had only one means left of surviving.

As fast as she could, Dobson punched the largest key on her right bracer, to activate the portable teleporter that she'd designed with the assistance of Andre Delambre's old notes, and soon, her body was changing form; zipping through space as a mere series of energized particles. The last thing she saw before teleporting away, as usual, was the bright, blue flames that flared up around her every time she vanished like that.

* * *

When Adam saw the blue flames, he started to have some suspicions about just what Barry had been after, but when he looked closer at the flames, everything became much clearer, because he could see a figure outlined by the fire; a figure that seemed to be invisible, and yet, had exactly the same height and proportions as Dobson. That was all that Adam needed to see, before his talented mind arrived at the truth; Dobson had learned how to both turn herself invisible somehow, and also had some device on her, which generated those flames. A moment later, when she vanished completely, Adam realized that the machine she'd just used must have been some kind of transport device, but Barry didn't waste even a second when Dobson vanished. Immediately, he plowed through the remains of the blue fire, scattering it in all directions, and then he braced one foot against the ground, and almost seemed to swivel around in place, then vault himself directly towards Adam.

The werewolf was traveling much faster than any animal that Adam had ever seen, and speeding himself up even more with the aura of fire that had surrounded him. Adam knew that in that form, there was no way that Barry would shy away from killing him, which meant that as impossible as it seemed, he needed to defend himself somehow. He'd fought werewolves before, of course, but never one that could do the things he'd just seen Barry do. Still, as afraid as he was, Adam never lost his determination. He knew that he had to come up with something.

Quickly, Frankenstein's creature squinted through the darkness as he sprinted away from Barry like lightning, leaping the fence around Dracula's property, and weaving back and forth, out of the way of the smaller buildings beyond, until his mad dash took him into a large park, full of trees, ponds and roads, still with useless telephone poles and electric lines strung up along them. Adam couldn't be sure that anything would work against Barry at that point. Still, he was starting to get some new ideas, as he surveyed the landscape in front of him.

In a flash, Adam seized a nearby tree trunk, vaulting himself up into its branches like a monkey. The branches strained under his weight, but they wouldn't need to bear him for long. Soon, he'd leapt out of that tree, and towards another one nearby, on the other side of a road. Barry had nearly caught up to him by that point, so Adam knew that he only had a moment to put his plan into action. Quickly, as he careened over the blazing werewolf, Adam seized one of the telephone lines that he was passing right over, feeling one end of it snap right off with the sheer momentum of his jump. Then, he landed in the branches of another, older, stronger tree, and taking only a moment to steady himself, he yanked the other end of the phone line as hard as he could.

At once, a series of sharp cracking and snapping noises echoed throughout the park, and just a moment later, at least three telephone poles fell right over, and Adam was holding a length of power cable with several metal connectors attached to it. In one more swift maneuver, he whipped the whole cable up into the air as quickly as he could, seizing it at several points on the way down, and moving the connectors with his bare hands, then snapping off part of the cable, until he'd designed a very large, long whip, with three metal flails on the end. He'd planned it all out that way, because he knew he'd needed a weapon of some kind, although he'd never really used a weapon like that before. Still, he didn't have much time to learn. Adam Frankenstein knew that he had to go all-out against Barry immediately, or he'd be dead in a flash, just like the ibis monster that the werewolf had left behind on Dracula's property.

Quickly, Adam started using his powers again, channeling energy into the long wire he'd just uprooted, and spotting Barry only a second later. The werewolf had already made an absolutely tremendous leap towards him, and he had less than a second left before Barry was going to hit him, so he quickly swung his wire around, striking the werewolf in the arm, then leapt from the tree, out of the way of his enemy's attack. The wire got tangled around Barry's upper arm, but nothing really seemed to be happening to him until he landed back on the ground again.

The moment Barry hit the ground, he started to convulse all over, as if he were transforming again, but of course, Adam knew what was really going on. His own body's electrical current was traveling through the wires and into Barry, and since the werewolf had just been grounded, it was having quite an effect on him. Still, that surprised Adam a little bit. After all, he'd thought that only silver could kill werewolves.

However, almost as soon as Adam started asking himself that question, a possible answer popped into his head. Among other things, silver was the single most conductive metal in the known world, and while he doubted that anything on the wires he'd been using was made of it, it was possible that there was a connection there; some hidden weakness of werewolves, connected with the properties of silver. After all, as badly as the curse of lycanthropy changed a person; especially after exposure to the light of a full moon, a werewolf was still a physical creature, and electricity did still travel through its synapses. Though Barry seemed to have gone beyond the limits of most werewolves when it came to the sheer physical punishment and intense heat that he could withstand, it was possible that he also had weaknesses that Adam had never noticed before; weaknesses that might even have existed in Talbot too, and others like him.

As Barry struggled to get untangled from the wire, however, there was something else that Adam noticed about him. The aura of intense flames that had surrounded him ever since he'd been hit by the moon-beam had begun to diminish; growing fainter and fainter. Finally, when he managed to wrench himself loose from the wiring, Adam put two and two together.

Adam Frankenstein wasn't sure just why the ibis-monster's powers had made Barry so strong, or why his own electricity seemed to be weakening the mighty werewolf, but it was becoming perfectly clear that he had a weapon to use against his enemy; an effective means of draining the werewolf's power, just as the bird-monster had been draining energy from himself and Nancy.

By that point, Barry had swept his claws around, cutting clean through the wire that Adam had been using, but it was clear that he'd already grown much weaker from the struggle. In only a moment, the constructed man swept the remnants of the wire around again, even as the werewolf attempted to charge towards him one more time. That time, however, Adam lifted up one foot as he moved the wire, kicking the werewolf's wrists aside, and just managing to deflect the claws that had been aimed at his stomach. Then, in one more quick motion, he seized the werewolf's shoulder with one hand. sweeping the wire around, and catching him under the neck with it. Soon, he was pulling on the wire, hoping that it would be able to stand up to the strain, as electric power continued to flow out of his body and into the Barry's, diminishing the glow that surrounded him with every moment that passed. It was one of the werewolf's few weaknesses. Because of the way their transformation changed the shape of their jaws, they had a much harder time escaping when strangled from behind.

Still, Adam was confident he would have lost that struggle, if it weren't for the fact that Barry seemed to be growing weaker and weaker under his touch, as though some unnatural energy were seeping right out of his body, the longer that Adam held onto him. At last, Barry's strength gave out completely, and Adam felt his opponent's fur starting to disappear. Even so, he refused to let the werewolf go until he was lying on the ground, back in human form, and apparently drained of all his power.

Adam had expended most of his electricity in that fight, and he was bruised and aching all over as well, but he still had enough strength to look up at the sky one more time, and confirm what he'd suspected from the start. The moon wasn't even full that night, which meant that Barry's transformation had been brought on entirely by the ibis monster's power, though it probably hadn't anticipated that outcome.

Slowly, Adam lifted Barry's unconscious body up over one shoulder, just as he had during their first encounter, and carried him off, heading back towards the mansion of Dracula in silence.

* * *

Adam hadn't really been gone that long, but he'd still expected things to be different when he got back. At the very least, he'd thought that Dracula himself would have shown up, to try to set things in order again, but Dobson was still missing, Gill-man and Nancy were still on the ground, and so was Imhotep. The only difference that Adam could see was that a man in a black robe was standing over the mummy, with some kind of stone scepter in one hand, and a large sub-machinegun hanging over the opposite shoulder.

Immediately, Adam had tossed Barry to the ground, and was on top of the man, seizing his firearm, and throwing it clear across the yard, where it hit the ground with a thud. Soon, he was holding the man up in the air by his neck, glaring furiously into his face. However, Adam wasn't sure how to feel about the look that the man in the robe was giving him in return.

Even while being held in mid-air, that man was glaring right back at Adam, as if he wasn't really afraid to die, or rather, was used to the idea. Adam had seen that look before. In fact, he'd seen it recently, in Lord Dracula. He never saw it in the face of anyone who didn't know what it meant to put their lives on the line. In fact, most of the time, it was veteran soldiers who had that look. Still, that didn't exactly inspire Adam's trust. On the other hand, without his gun, it was just as obvious that the man was no threat to Adam, so after a few moments, he lowered the robed man to the ground again, grabbing him by the shoulder instead of the neck; just firmly enough to keep him from running off or going for the gun.

"Tell me why you're here." Adam just said firmly, finally deciding that it was the best response to make to that man's sudden appearance, and after taking only a moment to catch his breath, the man in the black robe did indeed reply, looking up into Adam's face. That was the first time that Adam got a really good look at the shape and color of his face.

The man under the cloak had a thick mustache, and his hair was long and dark. He also had dark skin, and tattoos of some kind on his cheeks, although Adam didn't recognize their design. However, he didn't give Adam much time to puzzle over them, before he spoke up in a voice that reflected a will of iron.

"My name is Gahiji Bay." the man announced boldly to Adam, looking up at him without even a glimmer of fear in his eyes, "I am here to stop the horrors that you and your lord have unleashed upon the world."


	14. Chapter 14: Bird, Fish and Wolf

Chapter 14: Bird, Fish and Wolf

* * *

For a moment or two, Adam Frankenstein just stared at Bay, not really sure how to reply. He couldn't tell him that Imhotep wasn't horrible. In a sense, he still was. However, what he could do was echo Lord Dracula's reason for raising him from the dead, and hope it rang true with the man in the robe.

"In case you haven't noticed, the world has lots of other horrors to deal with right now; bigger horrors than one mummy, no matter how powerful."

However, Bay replied to that without any hesitation, and his response was a big surprise to Adam.

"It does indeed. You have no idea what you have done in Egypt; what you have awakened."

"So tell me." Adam just replied, folding his arms firmly as he listened to Bay's continual warnings, "What's the nature of this huge problem that we've caused?"

"The ancient world has many curses." Bay continued a moment later; looking, if possible, even more grave as he spoke, "I belong to an order named the Medjai; warriors for good, descended from the very guardians of ancient pharaohs. From the day we can first speak, we take an oath to do whatever is in our power to prevent the curses of Egypt from infecting the rest of the world, and you have just unleashed the most fearsome of them all."

"Imhotep." Adam observed, but Bay just shook his head somberly a moment later, pointing to the remains of the ibis-creature that still lay on the grass, not far away.

"That beast?" Adam asked, starting to feel very confused, "I admit it was a challenge to fight, but now it's clearly dead, and..."

However, by that point, Bay was shaking his head again, his expression still unchanging the next time that he spoke.

"In order to restore Imhotep to life, your lord used the magic contained within both the Book of the Death, and the incantation of the Scroll of Thoth. The combination of these two incantations were not meant to be used on mortal men. According to legends of ancient times, they were created by Thoth and Osiris, for the purpose of restoring the latter to life, and only Isis was permitted to use them."

Just like that, something snapped into place in Adam's thoughts, and he remembered just where he'd last seen the image of a person with the head of an ibis. The creature had born a striking resemblance to Thoth; the Egyptian moon god. Still, although it had been very powerful, Adam had a hard time believing that it had been some ancient immortal, especially after how easily Barry had killed it.

"That wasn't Thoth, was it?" Adam asked at last.

"No." Bay merely replied flatly.

"But it was connected to him, wasn't it?"

"Yes. The beast that you have killed was an avenger of Thoth; an emissary of his will, which according to the secret lore of the Medjai, has a small share in his supernatural power. You must have noticed how it lashed out against you with a power like that of the moon."

However, Adam was only buying into so much of that. He could believe that the creature had been built to carry out the supposed will of Thoth, but he still wasn't ready to believe in some long-discredited Egyptian gods, unless the evidence was much stronger than what he had lying in front of him.

"Do you know where it came from?" Adam asked, and at that point, Bay seemed to relax just a bit, apparently understanding that in Adam, at least, he had a partial ally.

"This avenger came from Hamunaptra. It was contained in one of the lower chambers, asleep until its power was needed. My order explored those chambers long ago, but even we did not suspect that the avenger's powers would be so monstrous. What worries us now, is that there were other avengers alongside it at the time, and they are now missing as well."

When Adam heard that, he felt the color start to drain from his face. After the horrible struggle he'd just been through with only one of those creatures, he wasn't eager to fight more.

"Are you saying they'll be headed here?"

"No. If they were, they would have all arrived already. They travel with tremendous speed, and seem relentless in the pursuit of their goals."

However, that only raised another question to Adam's mind; one that he just couldn't stop himself from asking.

"In that case, how did you get here so fast?"

However, Bay's response to that question was as quick as it was confusing, because he merely held up the stone scepter he'd been using. As he did so, some kind of green energy seeped out of it, and Adam could see that its top was in the shape of a falcon's head. The energy was coming out of the eye-sockets on the head, although Adam couldn't spot any obvious power source. If it was even a machine in the conventional sense, in fact, Adam couldn't have proven it.

"This scepter was given to the medjai in ancient times, to use in drawing us toward those who desecrate the ancient magic of our country. How it works, none of our order knows anymore, but it was this that brought me here, just before you arrived."

"In that case, what do you need from me?" Adam asked, not sure he was going to like the answer, and sure enough, Bay's reply didn't satisfy him at all.

"We must recover the book of Amun Ra, and return the high priest Imhotep to where he belongs, among the dead. If we succeed in doing this, the avengers will undoubtedly conclude that their mission is fulfilled, and return to where they belong as well."

However, something about that answer sounded incomplete to Adam, if not just plain wrong, so in a moment, he spoke up again, not really pleased by what he had to say.

"No. I refuse."

Bay didn't look too surprised, but Adam felt that he should explain himself anyway, lest there be any confusion left about the nature of his decision.

"That avenger was a tough opponent, but he never once tried to be reasonable, or explain the problem he was having. Maybe that wasn't his purpose, but he was clearly intelligent. He'd managed to acquire a firm grasp of our language somehow, and yet he didn't bother trying to use it to solve his problems. Frankly, I'm not eager to satisfy his demands, or yours."

"Why?" Bay asked at once, though he still didn't sound terribly upset by what Adam had just told him, "Why do you distrust me?"

"It's not just you." Adam replied, however, "Your whole order sounds fishy to me. You claim to be warriors for good, yet you take pride in the fact that your ancestors enforced one of the most wicked regimes in all of human history; a regime that destroyed the lives of thousands of people, building vast monuments, just because of the insecurity of your ancient pharaohs, and their craving for everlasting recognition. I was never too impressed by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and I'm not too impressed with people who have a strong connection to them either, so you'll forgive me if I find your 'warriors for good' rhetoric just a bit hollow."

Bay looked rueful for a moment longer, but he eventually seemed to realize that trying to fight Adam wasn't a wise idea, no matter what he was trying to accomplish in doing so. At last, he asked another question, sounding mainly curious, but also a bit scornful.

"What about the avenger? What will you do with its remains?"

However, that was one question that Adam didn't have a ready answer for. He was still surprised that it was taking Dracula so long to show up, and he wished that their group's founder would take a bigger interest in what was happening there. Still, if it had been his choice to make, he knew what he would have done.

"I don't know." Adam just replied, "We may try to figure out how its powers worked, and why they brought the worst out of Barry. If we discover that they have any serious weaknesses, I'll be sure to let you know about them, of course. You might have to fight one yourself, someday."

"An unsettling thought." Bay just replied, though he didn't say anything else about it, before Adam lifted Barry back up over one shoulder, and started carrying him back towards Dracula's mansion, leaving the Gill-man and Imhotep to do their own healing on the grass. As for Nancy, if Adam was right, she was really more exhausted than injured, and it wasn't as though he could have moved her very easily anyway. Bay, for his part, remained outside, just watching both Adam and Imhotep like a silent, vigilant hawk, until well after Adam had entered the mansion through the front door, and passed down into the monsters' main base.

* * *

As Adam had predicted, it seemed that both Imhotep and the Gill-man had managed to regenerate from their injuries without any assistance, and once he'd located Dobson again, restoring Barry and Nancy to health hadn't been too difficult either. Bay had continued to stand perfectly still, just outside of their mansion, as though he truly had nothing better to do, but then, he had problems of his own. As for the avenger's remains, Dobson had been very eager to study them, and she spent the next several hours doing just that. However, what Adam found absolutely shocking was that during all that time, Dracula still didn't appear. For a while, Adam had begun to wonder of the vampire lord had been exposed to something during their infiltration into the alien ship, which had killed or seriously wounded him, beyond his ability to recover, but as it turned out, he did appear again, walking right into the lab, just as Dobson finished the last of the tests that she'd been performing on the avenger's remains, and was putting away her equipment, and writing up some final notes. Adam had been sitting in the lab as well, for want of anything more important to look after, and he was one of the first witnesses to their leader's utter callousness, and heard the first words out of his mouth, after hours of taking no action to help or hinder them.

"What did you find out about this creature?"

It didn't surprise Adam that Dracula already knew a thing or two about the avenger. After all, his hearing was very acute, not unlike the hearing of a bat. However, the sheer gall of demanding results from them, after leaving them in the clutches of a monster like that, and not even helping them deal with their injured was infuriating to Adam. He felt like slugging the vampire right then and there, though again, he knew it wouldn't have done any good. Dobson herself seemed irritated with Dracula, but she gave him an answer, regardless.

"It's hard to say, but it seems to have been undead, like yourself. I think someone brought it back to life deliberately, though I couldn't tell you why or how."

"But its head..." Dracula objected, at which point Dobson looked away for a moment, before she tried to explain that as best she could.

"Its head was designed from animal parts, to look like the head of an ibis. How those parts were combined so well, I couldn't tell you, but then, I've got the same questions about our friend Adam."

"In other words, this creature is the same as Adam; a patchwork man with unnatural powers."

"In some ways. In other ways, the two obviously differ."

Dracula seemed satisfied with that response, giving a dispassionate nod to Dobson, and a moment later, without bothering to thank her or say good-bye, he just opened the lab door and left, looking contemplative. Adam wanted to wring his neck, but when he turned back to look at Dobson, she didn't seem too upset. She did, however, look very serious, and Adam, as wise and experienced as he'd grown over the years, could read volumes in the look she was giving him. Quickly, he got up off the large table he'd been sitting on throughout her brief conversation with Dracula, and stood up, watching her carefully as she jerked her head in the direction of the big, white door to the right; the door that led into the chambers where she'd tested Adam, to try to learn the real nature of his powers. Soon, she'd opened that door, and stepped inside, and Adam followed close behind, watching her closely. Then, she closed the door behind him, and the two were alone in that chamber; a big, white room with two computer terminals in it.

It was only once Dobson had checked all the doors of that huge, white chamber, that she made any attempt to speak.

"There's a sonic disruption field surrounding this room." Dobson said gravely as she turned back to face Adam again, "No matter who's listening, or how good their hearing is, they won't be able to overhear us from outside."

As much as he'd been reading into the look in Dobson's eyes, those words of hers told Adam even more. She'd discovered a lot of secrets while studying the remains of the avenger of Thoth; more than she'd wanted Dracula to find out about, despite the fact that he was still their leader. It seemed, Adam thought, that Dobson had good instincts.

"What's the problem?" Adam asked, though he probably didn't need to say a word to her. Dobson was clearly ready to spill her guts to him, whether or not he asked her to.

"That avenger really was like you, Adam." Dobson said urgently, "A lot like you. Its head was different, its left arm is smaller and more normal, and its power source is completely different from yours, but other than that, it looks like the same process was used to make both of you."

"What?" Adam asked, starting to feel very confused, even as he listened to Dobson's claims, "I don't... I mean, how could that be? That creature's been around since the times of ancient Egypt."

"Perhaps longer." was Dobson's cryptic reply, however, "Still, the same universal laws apply to us all, and if a procedure brought you to life, that same procedure could be used on others."

"But are you honestly telling me that the people of ancient Egypt had unlocked the same secrets of life and death that my father did?" Adam asked. However, the moment he asked the question, he realized just how foolish it sounded. The people of ancient Egypt had obviously held secrets about life and death well beyond the ones that his father had discovered. The book of the dead and Imhotep were proof of that. From everything that Adam had seen, it didn't seem like much of a stretch that their ancient sorcery might have been able to duplicate the feat that his father had managed to accomplish; giving new life through an unnatural means. It was such an obvious answer, that Dobson didn't even bother to give it. Instead, she just moved on to another discovery she'd made.

"There's one other difference between the two of you, which I haven't been able to find a reason for. Do you remember that other kind of strange energy I told you I'd found in your body? Well, it's not in his at all. I'm not sure what it means."

Adam didn't really know what it meant either, but he did have one idea, which he thought might help Dobson in her research.

"His power source seemed to feed off my electrical power and vice versa. Could he have a power aura like mine, only reversed somehow?

"You're asking me if he had an uncharted energy source on an inverse frequency." Dobson clarified quickly, "No, he didn't. His power source is certainly different from anything else I've ever seen, but it's not like the unknown energy I found in you. It just runs through his body in the same way that electricity runs through yours. As I said, I don't know why that is. He was certainly built from different parts than you, but I can't think of any reason why that would infuse your cells with mysterious energy, and not his. It's a puzzle."

It certainly was, Adam thought, but it wasn't the only puzzle, or even the most complicated one. Dobson herself was a very odd case, for one thing. She had a habit of explaining exactly how she felt to everyone who asked, and Adam never got the impression that she was lying. Even so, she was tough to figure out, and even harder to predict. As he listened to her explaining the strange discoveries she'd made, though, he felt a new question creeping into his thoughts.

"I can understand why you wouldn't tell this to Dracula. Frankly, I don't trust him very much myself, but why tell me?"

However, it seemed that once again, Adam's guesses about Dobson hadn't quite been on target, because a wry smile had spread across her face by the time she replied to his question.

"Trust him? You know, I never really thought about it. The thing is, I only really agreed to join his side because it looked like an opportunity to acquire free data about monsters. You wouldn't believe how much I've been gathering. Still, I'd rather not tell him things that don't concern him. I had to work hard to get all that information, and I don't see why I should make it any easier on him."

"But why did you tell me?" Adam repeated, though it seemed that Dobson was already prepared with an answer.

"Because I'm still hoping to learn more from you as you develop. If I didn't at least try to do you a favor here and there, you wouldn't have any reason to trust me, and I might never see you again. If I don't see you again, I can't get any more data on you. That's not good business, if you'll pardon the expression."

That, Adam thought, was a strange situation. Dobson had basically just him that she was still untrustworthy, and was only treating him right because she wanted something from him in exchange. Still, in a way, that made him feel more trusting towards her, rather than less. Whatever else she was, Dobson had always been honest with him, no matter what her reasons for it may have been, and as long as that continued, he had nothing to worry about from her, while Dracula, who was so suspicious of his teammates, and guarded his own secrets so closely, was being given no significant regard in exchange.

In spite of the struggle he'd just survived, Adam wasn't really worried about the avengers or Barry, and he certainly wasn't worried about Dobson. All of those monsters of Earth had devastating powers, and yet, he was gradually learning not to be afraid of powers alone. What worried him was motive; the reason that each player in the game had for being part of it. In that respect, only two people really had Adam worried; the aliens who'd attacked them before, and Dracula himself.

* * *

Barry and the Gill-man were up and about by the time Dobson had finished her research into the avenger, though neither one of them looked like they were in a very good mood. The Gill-man was brooding in one corner of the hall just outside the lab, and Barry looked like he'd just swallowed something sharp. Still, the Gill-man had been injured in the past before, and he knew what that was like, so for the moment, it was Barry who Adam turned his attention to.

"Barry?" Adam asked, trying to display as much concern as he could for the young man, "What's wrong?"

However, as much as Adam was learning to understand Barry's feelings, he still wasn't completely prepared for the reply that the young man gave him. A sudden, ferocious scowl sprang to the boy's face as he bellowed his answer.

"What do you think?"

Of course, it only took Adam a short time to realize just what Barry meant. For a moment, he thought that maybe the boy had held some sort of grudge against Adam for subduing him, but that didn't seem likely. After all, Adam's ability to subdue Barry was the very reason the two of them had become friends. It was much more likely, he realized, that the werewolf was feeling guilty about losing control in his transformed state. In fact, considering how easy it was to shame Barry, he was probably feeling devastated.

"Yes, I suppose that was a foolish question." Adam admitted at last, which seemed to calm Barry down just a little, though like a true werewolf, he continued scowling, "Is there anything I can do?"

However, it seemed that hadn't quite been the right question either, because Barry's next response was just as furious as the last.

"Don't you get it? If this was something you could fix, you'd be fixing it already!"

That time, it took Adam a bit longer to understand what Barry's problem was, but he was experienced in evaluating people's character, and it didn't remain a mystery for more than a few seconds.

"You want to be in control of yourself, like a man." Adam observed aloud, though he was already sure that he was right. Barry's reply to that didn't take long either.

"It's... Well... Every single day, every second, every minute, I can't ever let go. I can't ever let up, or I might snap and kill somebody. Don't you... don't you know what that's like?"

However, as much as Adam wanted to help Barry, he really had no idea what it felt like to be a werewolf. He'd done terrible things himself, in the past, but it was always largely his fault. He'd never had to face an oppressive force from within himself, driving him towards evil, and further away from control over his own life. What Barry was describing was almost totally alien to him, so at last, he just shook his head sadly.

"Yeah... I didn't think so." Barry replied quickly, "I've been thinking about this a lot since the last time we talked, Adam, and now I know what you were talking about; why the werewolf's curse is so horrible, even to monsters. I started fighting for control again just after we finished talking, and it's the hardest fight I've ever been in. Then suddenly, I rushed up to help you, and after all that time fighting it, I totally lose control anyway! Rrrgh!"

Adam could understand Barry's frustration in that respect; trying with all his might to accomplish something, and failing utterly. In fact, he suspected there wasn't a human being alive who hadn't experienced that, but Barry had a lot more at stake than most did. His very self-control was on the line, in fact; his character as a person. Still, Adam had only bad news to give him.

"I've never met a werewolf who had an easy time controlling themselves," he said at last, though he couldn't look Barry in the eye as he spoke, "and as far as I know, there's never been one who could stay in control while they were in their fully-transformed state. I wish I could give you a solution to this, Barry, but lycanthropy is a terrifying condition, and it can corrupt even the most innocent young boy."

"You're telling me there's no way out." Barry observed, though there was a hint of defiance in his voice as he spoke, but Adam just shook his head sadly before replying.

"I didn't say that. Talbot found a way out. Still, if what you really want is to be a man, and have the freedom to make your own choices again, instead of being enslaved to this curse, it's not going to be an easy path. You need to decide, once and for all, that the power to do right is the only one you want. Otherwise, you'll just be setting yourself up for a fall. If you really do want the power to do the right thing, then start by learning the difference between right and wrong, and do it quickly. The curse will take full advantage if you leave yourself weaknesses for it to exploit."

Barry was starting to look shameful again, but at least he wasn't flying into some kind of frantic rage, like most of the other werewolves that Adam had fought in the past. He still had just enough meekness left in his heart to pay attention to his friend's advice. Normally, lycanthropy changed a person's whole personality, but, Adam was starting to realize, that didn't really take away their free will, and a meek person seemed to make a relatively meek werewolf as well. Barry didn't have another word to say, it seemed, before he walked off, looking very dejected and crestfallen, but at the same time, there was a look of determination in his eyes, as if he finally had a purpose again, which was, Adam thought, a good sign.

Until that point, Adam hadn't been paying much attention to the Gill-man, though he had noticed that he'd been sitting on the floor, not far from Barry, as if trying to keep an eye on him. However, when the boy had left the hallway that the two had been in, the Gill-man also got up, heading in a completely different direction, and looking very frustrated. Still, there was something about his attitude that really worried Adam, so in just a moment, he turned to face him, and said "Gill-man... Wait a moment."

In response, the Gill-man turned to glare at Adam with a look that was positively venomous, although he wasn't really sure why. After only a moment, though, he made his best guess.

"You don't like being called that, do you?"

However, much to Adam's surprise, that question seemed to wipe the look of loathing from the Gill-man's face, and soon, he seemed a bit pensive. However, he spoke before too long, his voice still sounding as much like a hiss as an audible, human voice.

"It doesn't matter. It's the closest thing to a name that I have."

"Would you rather have another name?"

"No."

However, that response puzzled Adam more than a little, and after just another moment, he found that he couldn't stop himself from asking one more question.

"Why?"

However, it seemed that the Gill-man had already thought the matter through sufficiently for his own liking, because there was no hesitation before he replied.

"Because names are civilized and human. A non-human creature like myself has no need for them."

"You're as human as the rest of us."

However, the moment that Adam said those words, he could tell that they'd been the wrong thing to say, because in response, the Gill-man drove his fist clear through the nearest wall with a hiss of rage, though it wasn't really audible over the sound of twisting, warped metal. When he pulled his hand back out of the wall, glaring at Adam again, it was obvious that he had something else to say.

"If you dare to say that one more time, you'll have to fight me again."

That wasn't a prospect that Adam relished, of course, but at the same time, he couldn't really understand the Gill-man's anger and resentment, because he knew next to nothing about his history, so after another moment, Adam asked him one more question.

"Why do you hate humans so much?"

The Gill-man looked like he was on the verge of lashing out again, but he seemed to notice that there was no belligerence in that question, so before long, he started to explain himself, still sounding a bit testy as he spoke.

"I remember next to nothing about the days before I first encountered humans, but I do remember that there were others like me; men and women of the sea, with the power to swim, to walk upright, and to move boulders without much effort... I also remember that we lacked the gift of reason. We were animals; plain and simple, without ever needing to think clearly about anything. Our memories were limited, our instincts clear, and we never grieved too much over losses, or worried about our purpose in life. Animals don't worry about those things, you see. When the rest of my people began to die off; the result of a tragic change in the food chain over time, there must have been some sense of loss, over the lack of fellow Gill-men to mate with, but I'm sure I didn't notice the horrible tragedy of what was happening; not fully."

"Even when I was captured more than once; imprisoned and abused, I couldn't have understood just how horrible it all was; just what a crime was being committed against me. Then, Helen did the one thing that I could never forgive; she gave me a mind to understand the world around me, and a soul to evaluate its worth. I don't know how she did it, but I have all that I need to act like a human, and I've hated every human for it ever since."

Adam still didn't completely understand, though he waited a few moments before he re-stated his question.

"But why?"

"I wasn't born human. I didn't need to shoulder the burden of the pain that man feels." the Gill-man said bitterly, "I didn't have the responsibility of man; to conduct myself by his kind of morality. With the power to think for myself, there came not only the pain of knowing that I was the last of my kind, but a crushing guilt, whenever I did something that was immoral or unethical for thinking, reasoning creatures. I don't remember whether I was miserable before being given human-like intelligence, but I certainly was afterwards, and all of the blame for that can be laid entirely at the feet of mankind; its sins and its refusal to accept its own grave responsibility. Helen gave me the power to see all of that wickedness for what it was, but she wasn't the only wicked person who ever hurt me. A whole world contributed to that."

"Is that really what you think?" Adam asked, not really caring whether the Gill-man attacked him anymore, "The world's a big place. It's impossible for everyone in it to have hurt you. In fact, I'll bet most of the people in the world were just trying to get by, and never even heard of you."

However, the Gill-man didn't look as if he'd changed his mind in the least, and in a moment, he just replied, "I've thought of that too, but if anyone out there really was 'just trying to get by,' not really going out of their way to help others, then they're just the kind of person I've been hurt by the most, and they would have hurt me if they had known me, just by their selfish fixation on their own interests alone. You say 'just trying to get by' as if it were a good thing, Adam. You must know it's not."

Even as Adam heard the Gill-man hiss those words out, he had to admit that the half-fish was absolutely right. The very term 'just trying to get by,' by its very nature, denoted an attitude of self-centeredness, and Adam was sorry that he'd used it, because that wasn't what he'd meant to say at all.

"There are others, too..." Adam continued, "They're not common, but they do exist. People who've spent almost their whole lives giving freely to others. Men and women who do the best they can, with every single breath they take, to help others to survive, and find hope for the rest of their lives. Are you going to tell me that they've hurt you too?"

Of course, Adam had hoped that that response would give the Gill-man something to think about, but even so, the scaly man's response was surprising.

"What? That can't be! What are you talking about?"

Adam had to suppress a smile at that point, as he started explaining the history of hagiography that he'd had just enough time to study in some depth while he'd been in communication with Brother Brieve, describing a few of the people that his studies applied to; people who'd sacrificed whole fortunes to help others when they felt it was their calling, living in poverty for the benefit of others; even in recent years. Eventually, the Gill-man started to look pensive again, as he listened to some of the brief, summarized life stories that Adam told him in those few minutes together, and finally, he merely remarked "hhh," as if he was genuinely surprised to hear that. At last, when he spoke intelligibly again, the Gill-man sounded very curious about the concept of saintly conduct that Adam was describing to him.

"I've never met anyone like that; not ever. I'd assumed that merely being human precluded that possibility... Perhaps... Hhh..."

For a few moments longer, the Gill-man was silent, and Adam knew better than to try to say anything else, until a while later, the half-fish spoke up one last time.

"I have other concerns as well, of course. I'm disappointed by how easily you and that werewolf defeated me. Still, I'll never solve these problems if I remain here. I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" Adam asked, though he wasn't really surprised to hear it, "What if the aliens return while you're gone?"

"I'll do my best to return before they do." the Gill-man replied a bit too casually, "Still, there are things I must do. I must... I must go."

However, Adam still wasn't quite finished with him, so just as the Gill-man was about to step through the door at the far end of the hall, Adam spoke to him one more time.

"I won't try to stop you Gill-man, but if you're leaving, there's one more thing you should think about."

"Oh?" the Gill-man asked, sounding surprised, "What's that?"

"When I first met you, you were rampaging through the London Harbour, without caring at all about who you hurt." Adam said very sternly, almost definitely taking his life in his hands as he spoke, "If you're upset that you never met any saints in all the time you've lived, you might want to think about just how you've acted, and just how much hurt you've been causing for others."

However, the Gill-man still didn't look like he was going to go on the attack anytime soon, though he didn't look happy either. In fact, it seemed that he was growing very aggravated with Adam, and when he responded a moment later, every bit of that aggravation was clear in his tone of voice.

"Don't preach to me, you half-human scum. For all I know, you're just lying to get what you want out of me. This is a journey I have to make on my own, and if you break your word, and try to stop me, I swear I'll tear your head off."

Then, the Gill-man stormed out through the door at the end of the hall, and in spite of the nature of his last reply, Adam couldn't help but smile to himself.


	15. Chapter 15: Imhotep and the Colossus

Chapter 15: Imhotep and the Colossus

* * *

"Andari? What are you doing here?"

The alien being named Klaatu spun around in his control chair, where he'd been sitting and studying displays of data. However, the appearance of his friend had distracted him, and he wasn't having an easy time memorizing the new information anyway, so for the moment, Klaatu shut off the display, and turned to face his good friend, who still had a very caring look in his eyes.

"You've been in this room for almost a week." Andari responded, though Klaatu just sighed, not really wanting to explain it.

"If you're trying to study a planet, I'd be happy to assist you. Together, we could learn its secrets twice as fast." Andari continued, and it was true, of course, but Klaatu didn't feel it would be right to ask for Andari's help.

"I'm sorry, Andari, but I can't ask you to do that." Klaatu replied sadly, "This data is difficult to bear, and there's no reason why both of us should need to shoulder the burden."

"Not even charity?" Andari asked. It was a wise reply, of course, but Klaatu had already decided how he wanted to respond to it.

"Charity is the very reason that I don't want to expose you to this. Many years ago, I was given the task of monitoring a planet called Earth, to determine whether it was a threat to the galactic alliance. At the time, it wasn't, but only because its inhabitants had never successfully landed on another planet. They were a warlike people; savage and barbaric, and worse yet, they were haunted by evils of a sort I'd never seen before in my life. Some of them seemed to have some wisdom, so I let them alone for a while, but... I'm afraid things have taken a turn for the worse. The galactic alliance has to be protected, and making certain that Earth doesn't threaten it was the task that was given to me; no one else. At the time, I worked hard to save them from retribution... Perhaps... perhaps that was shortsighted of me."

"You did the best you could." Andari replied compassionately, "Sometimes, savage peoples just don't listen, no matter what you say or do."

Of course, that was true to a degree, but Klaatu still felt terrible.

"I sent Gort to gather further information recently; on their society and their defenses when robbed of electric power." Klaatu continued just a moment later, "At first, I felt horribly guilty about taking away their electricity, but now I almost wish I'd done it sooner. The data I've been getting on their world is maddeningly conclusive. In some ways, I wish I'd never seen it, because it doesn't make my decision any easier."

"Wait..." Andari remarked, sounding very confused, "Are you saying that the Earthlings are just as savage now as they were then?"

However, Klaatu let out a long, resentful breath in dismay, before he made any attempt to reply to that question.

* * *

Adam had felt a little concerned when the Gill-man had left, but in the end, he knew that worrying about it wouldn't do him any good, so he'd spent the next few hours continuing to train his abilities, as well as getting himself something to eat. He hadn't even realized just how hungry he'd grown after fighting that avenger, so he made himself a couple of beef sandwiches, with some salad and an apple from the food supplies in the base's freezer. However, he wasn't even halfway through his meal, when he heard a crackling noise coming from overhead, and looked up towards the ceiling of the rooms that Dracula had provided him with. Sure enough, there was some kind of speaker there, just embedded in the ceiling, and it seemed that it had already been re-wired to work with Dobson's heat-based power sources, because her voice came out of it a moment later.

"Adam? Are you there?"

It sounded silly, coming from a speaker, and Adam felt just as silly replying, since he wasn't sure that Dobson would be able to hear him, but eventually, he decided to just trust that she wouldn't have asked a question like that if she couldn't hear his reply.

"Yes. Is something wrong?"

For a moment, the crackling of the speaker continued, but at last, it seemed that Dobson had been able to hear him, because she answered his question a couple of seconds later.

"Adam, I'm not sure why, but Imhotep has been lying in the lab for hours. He's completely back to normal, but he's just not getting up, and I'm having a hard time concentrating with him watching me like this."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Adam asked in frustration, though he didn't try to continue his meal, for the moment, "Just ask him to leave."

"I did, but he didn't listen to me." Dobson replied, displaying some frustration of her own, "I just figured that maybe, both of you being undead and all, you might be able to get through to him."

In a way, Adam felt betrayed by Dobson. Still, he was a member of the team, and the art of sacrifice was the very one he'd been trying to learn; the very art that Brieve and Nancy had given him such beautiful examples of. In the end, he knew that he couldn't refuse to help her out. Still, he grabbed his second sandwich and apple on the way out the door, leaving the salad behind. If all went well, he'd be able to finish it when he got back from the errand that Dobson wanted him do.

* * *

When Adam stepped into the lab, he spotted the mummy almost immediately. Imhotep was still lying on one of the lab tables; the one across the room from where Adam had sat the last time he'd been cared for in that place. Just as Dobson had said, the bits of sand and broken glass that had previously made up much of Imhotep's body were gone, and the rotten bits along his face and arms had disappeared again. However, he still didn't look completely alive, for some reason. There was a look in his eyes that Adam hadn't seen in a while, and even when he had seen it, it had only been in the faces of the dead and dying. When he finally did decide to speak to the ancient Egyptian, Adam knew that he needed to be gentle to start with.

"You're in good shape, on the outside." Adam observed, standing over Imhotep, and watching him carefully, "You probably still have most of your powers, as well."

It was several seconds before Imhotep spoke, so that at first, Adam was worried he wouldn't reply. When he did, however, there was a clear note of despair in his voice.

"You can't understand, Adam Frankenstein. Even I barely do, but my very body and soul is right now in torment. This being who lies before you is a mere shell of myself. Even with the power of the scroll of Thoth, the loss of my original body has weakened me. I am incomplete."

For a moment, Adam opened his mouth, but he closed it again, just as quickly, and at last, he decided to be honest with the mummy, and hope that he took it well.

"I've read about you, Imhotep. I've heard about the terror you unleashed on that poor woman; how you nearly drove her insane. I also read about how you terrorized all of Cairo during your second resurrection. I was about to suggest that there might be a way to regain the other half of yourself, but then I remembered the things you'd done in the past, and I realized that might not be wise."

However, far from taking those words badly, Adam's challenging observations seemed to have breathed new life into Imhotep. Soon, he was sitting up, looking at Adam with a sort of strange smile.

"I can tell that you do not trust me." Imhotep said in some clear amusement, "You never did, did you?"

Adam didn't reply to that with anything but silence at first, but he knew he had to respond to what the mummy said next.

"Have you truly done nothing to harm others in the past?"

"That's different." Adam said, starting to scowl, "I have a reason to turn my life around. You don't. You're a proud man, Imhotep, but pride isn't enough to make a wicked man good. In fact, most of the time, it just makes him even more evil."

However, Imhotep's response to that was, in a way, very upsetting. He looked at Adam with a mischievous smirk on his face, and chuckled for just a moment, raising one eyebrow, as if in contempt for Adam's claims.

"Your people call many things evil, which are not." Imhotep said at last, "I have spent some time reading about your backwards society. I would be doing it a favor to destroy it. It suppresses ambition, enforces pathetic humility in every one of its classes, and imagine my surprise when I discovered that even women own property in your world."

"What's wrong with that?" Adam asked after only a moment, already worried that Imhotep was going to turn against them at any second, "Women are people too."

"That is not what I mean." Imhotep replied scornfully, "I mean that men and women are very different creatures. Men have inherent talent for problem-solving. The inherent talents of a woman are much different. They center around understanding and anticipating emotions. Through these talents, they are well suited to care for children, to support those they are bound to, and to enrich relationships through their understanding of them. However, when one brings those same emotional perspectives into the arena of problem-solving, problems are left unsolved. The woman who is given much responsibility in that area either concerns herself too much with her own emotions, or with the emotions of others who are involved, and forgets that she has a higher, more important mission to complete. When she is confronted with this, the urge to defy the very nature of the problem surfaces, and the inane wish for everyone to feel good replaces genuine common sense. The man, at least, understands that his feelings make no difference, when he has a duty to perform. This is why men are best-suited to own property, and to rule their families."

However, it didn't take Adam long to reply to that.

"That's not true in all cases. There are some women out there who are actually very good at problem-solving. Even before the last couple of centuries, they proved their worth, time and time again. It would have been foolish to throw their help away. I mean, just look at Dobson. Has she ever paid any attention to how people feel?"

For a moment, Imhotep did look at Dobson, who was working hard on a machine that looked a lot like a large-scale engine component, but there was a coldness in his expression when he did, and Adam could tell that he still hadn't been convinced to discard his misogyny completely. Even so, he seemed about to concede to Adam's point; at least partially.

"There may be exceptions to the rule," Imhotep said with a look of pity on his face as he spoke, "but that does not make the rule worthless. As much benefit as Dobson might bring to mankind, it brings even more benefit to ensure that weak sentimentality has no bearing on a nation's fate."

However, Adam already had a response for that, because he knew exactly what the mummy was trying to tell him, and just what was wrong with his viewpoint.

"You keep equating being female with being weak and sentimental, but there are lots of men who act that way too; far too many. Keeping women out of power does nothing to bar men from destroying nations. The rules you're talking about never really worked, because the real enemy was never women; it was a mentality of shortsighted sentimentalism, and it still is."

When Adam said that, however, Imhotep's expression began to chance. It seemed that the mummy had been defensive of his people's ways at first, because of his discontent with how society had developed in the intervening centuries, but at that point, he seemed to have realized that the perspective that Adam was arguing from wasn't a standard, contemporary one at all.

"You're not even trying to defend human society, are you?" Imhotep asked in surprise.

"Do I look human to you?" Adam asked back with some irritation, but the mummy's smirk returned a second later, and his brow rose again, as he finally dropped his defenses, realizing that, in a sense, he and Adam didn't really have anything worth arguing about.

"No." Imhotep said at last, still smirking as he sat upright with the pride of a wealthy aristocrat, "You look like a warrior, and you have a warrior's philosophy. I doubt you'll find many in this age of peace who agree with it."

"Does that matter?" Adam asked again, but the mummy was already shaking his head with a calm smile.

"Mankind is in a panic, because their world is falling apart, and we are the ones with the power." Imhotep said, finally getting to his feet, and putting one hand on Adam's shoulder, which the larger man wasn't sure he liked, "I would say that their opinions don't matter nearly as much as they once did."

Of course, that remark hadn't made Adam feel any better at all, because once again, it had revealed that whatever Imhotep's opinions were of society, he still had no respect for the weak or helpless; no regard for human dignity. In that respect, Adam realized, he truly was a child of the ancient culture that had raised him. Adam trusted him less than ever after that exchange, and yet, when he looked into the mummy's eyes again, and saw the same exhaustion as before, he still didn't feel right about leaving it that way. As little as he trusted the ancient one, Adam still wanted to help him somehow; if only to make him more useful during their next battle.

"I didn't see much of you after we were separated in that alien ship." Adam began, and that alone seemed to have been enough to wipe the smile off the undead Egyptian's face. In a moment, he was scowling again, and started to look away. From that, Adam could tell what was going through the mummy's head. He'd done poorly in battle after they'd been separated, and was ashamed of himself. In fact, after describing Adam as a "warrior," he must have been expecting a reprimand for his bad performance. Still, a moment later, he turned away from Adam, and began to explain what had happened, though he didn't dare to look the monster of Frankenstein in the eyes as he spoke.

"I was ambushed by an eight-foot, walking machine." Imhotep said in clear frustration, "I was certain that it would be a simple battle; a short struggle against a small, weak-looking enemy like that, but I had no idea of the nature of its powers. I was careless, and it... it immobilized me."

To anyone else, Adam might have said he was sorry to hear that, but he had a feeling that showing any weakness to Imhotep would be a bad idea, so instead, he just replied "I see."

"It's no one's fault but my own." Imhotep continued bitterly a moment later, "As I said, I was careless. I could have been cautious; tested him out to determine the nature of his powers, and I would have destroyed him if I had done that. I have no excuse for what happened, but I will not be so foolish again! Furthermore, I have every intention of growing stronger still, before our next battle. However, there is also a chance that I will be eradicated for all eternity. As an undead creature, I have no divine right to use the Pool of Isis. The last time that I dared to trespass on those grounds, it cost me my very life. Still, I feel that a part of me has been missing recently, and I do not know of any other means of learning the truth, than at the very pool of insight itself."

"I'm afraid I'm out of my depth." Adam admitted at last, hoping that Imhotep wouldn't see it as weakness, "The pool of insight?"

"A very ancient and powerful source of visions, to those who can reach it safely." Imhotep explained, "According to legend, the pool was once used by Isis herself to seek out the remains of Osiris, in order to restore him to life. The pool gave Isis insight like no other, with which to locate everything that she needed, in order to complete her task. If I use it one last time, I know that I can locate the part of myself that I have been missing. However, the danger is great; even for me. Neither Isis, Thoth or Anubis have favored me in the past, and trespassing into their halls may call forth terrible retribution from them. Perhaps even... but there is no reason to speculate. I only know that there will be danger. I may not return."

For some reason, however, Adam found himself wrestling with a difficult choice at that point. He didn't trust Imhotep. He didn't like him, and really, the mummy was probably the worst potential threat on their team, if he decided to turn on them. However, what was really on Adam's mind wasn't how he felt about the Imhotep, but about himself. He remembered the example that had been set for him by Nancy, by Brieve, and by the others he'd read about, and what had amazed him most of all had been their willingness to put aside their own desires, and help others, even when they had absolutely nothing to gain from it. It was, Adam knew, the very thing he wanted for himself, more than anything else; a pure, self-giving heart, which no amount of betrayal could crush. That was the reason why he spoke to the mummy one more time, before he had the chance to leave.

"Wait."

"What?" Imhotep asked, looking back at Adam for a moment, just as he'd been about to walk out the door.

"Wouldn't it be better if I came with you?" Adam asked, still not sure whether it was a good idea or not, "I mean, you mentioned danger, and no matter how powerful you are, danger isn't as likely when you have backup. Besides, even if something does happen, there's a better chance that one of us will get away, to tell the others what went wrong."

Imhotep looked a bit skeptical of that idea at first, but eventually, he just shrugged; about ready to give in.

"I would normally argue, but you've proven your ability to survive mismatched battles before. Perhaps you will be able to assist me. Very well. I accept your offer, but we must leave within the hour."

Then, just a short time later, Adam found himself being carried through the sky by a massive sandstorm, still silently wondering whether it would have been better not to volunteer after all.

* * *

By the time the raging sandstorm released Adam Frankenstein from its grip, he had no idea where he was. Imhotep had deposited him somewhere, but it certainly wasn't a place he recognized.

Adam was standing on a plateau of some kind. It was long and wide; as big around as a small town, and made from solid rock. However, there was a thin coating of sand all across the jagged, stone edges underneath Adam's boots, and when he looked off into the distance, over the edge of the plateau, all he could see were miles and miles of desert. Even when Imhotep materialized behind him, he couldn't take his eyes off that vast expanse, and the most incredible sight was still to come.

The mummy waited patiently for Adam to finish staring across the sands and turn around, and there, in the opposite direction, he saw something truly astonishing. There was an ornate temple, made from stone and brick, sitting in the center of the rocky plateau. It had humanoid statues all around it, each with some unique distinguishing feature, and many of the statues had begun to crumble with age. However, the temple itself was still intact; a largely-square building, with a big pair of doors, made from something that looked like iron pyrite, or perhaps even real gold. The doors were shut, of course, but the sign of such ancient art and architecture on such a high plateau made him feel very worried.

"Who built this temple?" Adam asked, fear filling his heart as he gazed up at those ominous statues, but Imhotep, it seemed, had few answers to give him.

"I do not know." the mummy replied, "I only know that this temple has been on this mountain since before the days when Egypt was in its prime."

Adam felt a chill travel up his spine when he heard that, because from what he'd seen, there was no way for anyone to climb up the plateau unless they could fly, much less bring tools or building materials with them. He suspected that he might have been able to climb it, but he wasn't even sure of that. It seemed that whoever had designed that place had possessed incredible powers, far beyond what was normal for the people of that era in human history, and that really worried him.

Still, as worried as he felt, Adam was the first to reach the giant, golden doors, and with only a nod from Imhotep, he was the one who pushed them open, bracing his hands against the doors, and his legs against the stone beneath his feet. Slowly, the massive, metal doorway creaked open, and the sight inside nearly brought some trace of deplorable, human selfishness to Adam's thoughts. He was ashamed of himself for thinking that way, but it was hard to think anything else, when the room in front of him was filled with such incredible treasure.

On both sides of the doorway, there were beautiful treasures, the likes of which Adam had never seen. A large amount of gold and silver had been gathered there, as well as piles of precious gems, but he also saw what looked like osmium, piled up in one section of the temple, and he was amazed by the sight. Adam had seem osmium before, of course, but never that much of it in one place. It was an extremely rare and strong metal; perhaps stronger than any substance in the world, and much more valuable that gold, because of its scarcity. Adam had no trouble believing that it had been viewed as treasure by whoever had built that place.

In addition to all of those precious materials, there were works of art as well, and they seemed to have been made mainly from gold and precious gems. There were statues and sculptures of various types, obviously made using some kind of forge, and the design of many of the statues was in the form of various Egyptian gods and goddesses; most likely intended as some form of tribute to them. For a moment, Adam started to feel sick when he saw that, because everything he saw reinforced the notion that some being or beings had indeed been responsible for the Egyptian legends, but even with all of that treasure in one place, Imhotep still looked disinterested. If nothing else, Adam thought, he'd apparently realized that real power never comes from wealth.

Both walls of the entry hall in that chamber were flanked by piles of those magnificent treasures, and at the far end of the room was what looked like a large, dry basin, intended to be part of some kind of fountain, with a door on either side. At first, he thought that maybe that basin was the pool that Imhotep had been talking about, but the mummy didn't pay any attention to it at all, just walking on through the door that led to the left, so Adam followed him a moment later, feeling very intimidated. However, as intimidated as he felt, the next room made him feel even more so.

The room that the left doorway led to was a long, tall hallway; almost half as big as the ones in Dracula's base, and at the end of the hall, there was another doorway, hidden in darkness. However, not much else about the hallway was visible, until Imhotep picked up an extinguished torch from a nearby wall, and held it out to Adam. Soon, taking his cue from the mummy's silent actions, he'd sent a small electric charge through it, starting the thing burning, and that was when he first saw the huge figures that dominated either side of the hallway.

There were enormous, stone statues on either side of the hall; each about twenty feet tall, and designed to look like ancient Egyptian deities. Their arms were braced against the ceiling of the hall, and their eyes were closed, as if struggling to support the weight. Adam had never seen that in any other ancient Egyptian sculptures, but nevertheless, he was led onward by Imhotep, through that hallway, and he knew that he couldn't let those colossi scare him away.

It was a long hallway, and Imhotep seemed to be taking his time walking down it, most likely out of fear of extinguishing the torch if he went too fast. However, Adam felt like it would have been better if they'd gone just a bit faster, because something about that hallway just didn't feel right to him. When they were about midway through it, he started to hear a noise coming from the temple around them, like some kind of creaking or crumbling. It sounded as if some pivotal part of the temple's construction was about to fall down around their ears, but, Adam decided after a moment, that couldn't be the cause of the noise. After all, that temple had been standing there for several thousand years, and it would be ridiculous if it came crashing down at that precise moment, while receiving its very first visitors in millennia.

However, as Adam and Imhotep moved on through that hallway, the cracking and crumbling noise continued, until even Imhotep was starting to look suspicious. Then, from behind them, there was a loud, booming sound, and a tremor in the floor, like a boulder falling to the ground, and the mummy spun around, waving his torch in the direction they'd just come from. There, the two monsters saw a truly terrifying sight. One of the statues; a statue of Osiris, had opened its eyes and set one foot down on the floor, blocking off the hallway entrance. Worse yet, it was removing its arms from their place on the ceiling, and silently advancing towards them. However, that, it turned out, was only the beginning.

From either side of the doorway that the two monsters had entered by, two cat statues, each bigger than a full-grown horse had also come to life. For a moment; for the first time since he'd known the mummy, Adam Frankenstein saw mortal terror in the high priest Imhotep's face, and he could understand why. To the ancient Egyptians, cats had been the guardians of the underworld, and Osiris had been its lord.

Still, Imhotep made his next move quickly, opening his mouth wide enough to swallow a soccer ball, and soon, from within that open maw, a horde of gnats sprayed out, striking the statues at once, and flying all around them, as if intended to distract them somehow. However, it seemed that the colossi felt neither pain, nor even irritation, and continued to advance on the two monsters through the swarm, but it was the cats that reached them first.

Though made of stone, the two huge cat statues moved with incredible speed, lunging at Imhotep with their eyes shining bright green. In response, he seemed to have started panicking, changing into a cyclone of sand in the middle of the hallway, which the cat statues were just as heedless of as the gnats. They charged right through the sand, as if they'd never even had any intention of attacking the mummy, their eyes still glowing, and that was when something happened, which Adam certainly hadn't expected. Some of the green aura from the eyes of the cats had spread to the sand cyclone as they'd passed through it, and just like that, the sand began to slow down, gradually falling to the ground, and taking a humanoid form once again. However they were doing it, it looked as if those statues had some kind of magic that was weakening the mummy even further.

The cats, however, made no attempt to go after Imhotep at that point, charging straight for Adam instead, and yet, even at that moment, Adam didn't really regret accompanying his teammate, because he could already tell that the mummy would have been doomed if he'd gone to that place alone.

The cats lunged at Adam simultaneously a moment later, but he leapt into the air at the last second, out of range of their solid stone claws, and in just another second, his feet came down on the head of one of the cats, and he leapt off of it again, traveling back in the direction of the entryway; towards where the statue of Osiris was continuing to glare at him menacingly. Still, Adam knew that there was no point in trying to stay in that hallway, for the moment. If he wanted to fight those stony enemies, he needed some kind of weapon, and the only place where he could thing to find one was in the chamber's first room.

Quickly, Adam seized Imhotep, carrying him over one shoulder as he moved, and ducking to one side when Osiris tried to seize him, not sure how to get past the massive statue. However, it seemed that Imhotep hadn't been rendered entirely powerless, even after being bathed in that strange magic, because when the statue made its attempt to grab them, he glared up at it in malice, and at once, the mummy's shadow seemed to grow larger, spreading out further and further around him, until everything but the torch was covered in darkness. That, Adam realized, was an advantage for him; especially if the statue needed to see. Soon, Adam could hear the sounds of the statues moving around in the darkness, as though searching for him, and in one fortunate moment, he caught sight of the stream of light, entering the treasure room by the temple's front door, which he'd left open. The moment that Adam saw that, he started sprinting towards it as fast as he could.

Back in the entry hall, Adam put Imhotep in the basin at once, and started looking around in the treasure piles for some kind of usable weapon. It sounded like the statues that had attacked them were gradually realizing what had happened, and heading in their direction again, and Adam knew that he didn't have much time to prepare for battle. However, it seemed that Imhotep's strength was returning, and he got to his feet just a moment later, rushing across the chamber towards the front doors. At first, Adam wasn't sure what to make of that, but then Imhotep spoke to him one more time, sounding much less afraid than he had been a moment ago.

"Try to lure the Osiris statue outside. If you can do that, I will deal with him."

Adam just nodded. He had a feeling that Imhotep had just given him a very important advantage, though the mummy was certainly at his weakest inside buildings, where he didn't have access to the desert sands. Still, at around that time, Adam had discovered a weapon that he was sure would be useful, among the pile of Osmium; a long, fairly-thin chain of absolutely enormous strength. For a moment, he actually tried to pull it apart, but even he couldn't do it. The metal was just too strong, which meant that it was perfect for his purposes.

In only another moment, the two cat statues had burst out of the hallway that Adam and Imhotep had just emerged from, looking just as ferocious as before, and moving towards him from either side, once they emerged into the treasure chamber. However, he already had a plan in mind. The moment that the two huge cats lunged at Adam Frankenstein, he jumped into the air again, swinging the chain around in a wide arc, and hearing a satisfying scraping noise as it lodged itself in the teeth of the massive, living statues. A second later, Adam had landed on the backs of both cats; one foot on the back of each, and was tugging as hard as he could on the chain, which he'd managed to hook up to those stone beasts like an enormous, metal pair of reigns. If they were anything like horses, Adam thought to himself at that point, he'd be able to steer them at least a little bit.

Sure enough, the monstrous, stone cats struggled against Adam, but he did manage to get them to turn around, spinning back towards the hallway they'd emerged from, and charging at it with all their animal fury, at just the moment when Osiris broke through that doorway himself, sending chunks of rock flying right towards Adam and his new mounts.


	16. Chapter 16: Imhotep's Weakness

Chapter 16: Imhotep's Weakness

* * *

Imhotep had felt the sensation before; the feeling of some strong source of magic tampering with his powers; draining them away. He'd felt it with the book of Amun Ra, and in the temple of the Scorpion King. His power came from magic, and all magic had weaknesses. It wouldn't have been usable by mortals otherwise. However, although sorcery had been his business, even in life, Imhotep just didn't know enough about the curse that had given him his powers, to determine what, precisely that weakness was. It upset him, suddenly being that helpless; feeling his power drain away all of a sudden; that power which made him so invincible in the world of men, but which, it seemed, other supernatural forces could circumvent. It was especially frustrating, because Imhotep had only been in battle without his powers a couple of times; he relied on them for nearly everything, and when he was robbed of them, he was nothing but a decently-trained, ancient aristocrat, in a world that had long since outgrown him.

More than anything else, he was infuriated by that helplessness, and even when he felt his power starting to return, that fury remained, driving the sands around him, forcing the cyclone of his power higher and higher, and causing it to spread out even further, until the sand grains beat against the temple walls like rain, changing their shape as they moved, to depict the expression of fury that could no longer be seen on his real face. Further and further the sandstorm rose, as his rage continued to build, and inside of his mind, he had to restrain himself from unleashing his full powers on that temple at once. After all, Adam was still inside, and more importantly, so was the pool of insight. As much anger as he felt at that moment, he knew that it wouldn't do any good to lash out without thinking things through. He'd learned that lesson already. Still, it was all he could do to start calming himself down.

However, as the mummy did start to calm down, he began to see what was going on all around him, as if through the very sand itself, and in one direction, he looked through the door of the temple, to see what had just happened. It looked as though the statue of Osiris had just burst through the doorway, shattering it to pieces, and burying both Adam and the cat statues under a pile of rocks, and that was all that Imhotep needed to see, before he decided to make his move.

Though he was still afraid that he might lose his powers again, Imhotep caused a torrent of sand to rise up off the desert floor, and pour into the temple, changing into a massive fist around the statue of Osiris, and yanking him out through the front door, shattering it to pieces on the way through. The statue looked disoriented for a moment, though its eyes were already giving off green light, which was starting to spread across the sand, and Imhotep knew that he had only a moment before his powers blinked out again. Quickly, he activated another of his abilities, hoping that it would be enough.

Unfortunately, the statue's aura was already causing the sand that held it to go limp, as if it were radiating some magic spell, crafted specifically to nullify other magic. Still, the deed was done, and even when Imhotep's powers left him again, and the sandstorm died away, the mummy knew that nothing could stop what he'd just set in motion. He was on his own again; mortal and at the mercy of that living stone statue, however, and there was a very real possibility that it might kill him before his plan even had time to take effect.

In a moment, the statue of Osiris had rushed forward much faster than it seemed capable of, to judge by its bulk alone, and reached out with its hands, trying to grab hold of Imhotep. He was able to jump out of the way of its first attempt, and its second, but then, its foot swung out, slamming against his hip like an express train, and his could feel his whole torso being torn apart, and the stench of ancient, rotten flesh rising from his injured body as he began to revert to his natural state of death. In just a moment, the statue had seized him again, lifting him up into the air, still bathing him in its null-magic spell as it did so, and seemed to be making ready to slam him into the ground, when Imhotep heard a sound that made him feel hopeful again, for the first time since the battle had started; the sound of something very large whistling through the air towards them.

It seemed that Osiris had heard the noise too, because in just a moment, he looked up, and his stony head was shattered into a hundred pieces by a tremendous, fast-moving hailstone.

The statue dropped Imhotep as soon as its head broke apart, and its aura seemed to have vanished, since its eyes had been shattered, but that statue wasn't the biggest threat anymore. In the past, Imhotep had used the curse of hail to knock down tall towers, and cause devastation to buildings on a citywide scale, and he knew what it would mean if he was hit by one of those massive hailstones himself; especially in his weakened condition.

The mummy could feel a bit of his power returning; just enough to start mending the injury he'd sustained from the statue's last kick, but he didn't have the power to change his form yet, so for the moment, he knew that his best bet would be to get inside the temple as fast as he could, and hope that its walls would protect him against the onslaught that he'd just unleashed. It was a situation that the Egyptian high priest had never quite been in before.

Soon, the hailstones were falling all around; each bigger than Imhotep's head, and crashing like meteors onto the sand and rock below. The mummy needed to jump once to get out of the way of one of them, and had to stop short to avoid being hit by another, but soon, he was back inside the temple, listening to the continual crashing noise, and hoping that he could get to the pool before the whole place came crashing down. Still, without his powers, he'd probably be helpless if there were any other traps or guardians in that temple, and when the mummy considered it in that way, his thoughts turned back to Adam Frankenstein one more time.

Imhotep reached the pile of rocks where he'd last seen Adam in moments. It was a big mess alright, but at least it had crushed both cat statues, which seemed to have been separated from their arms, legs and tails, and at least one of them had lost its head as well. However, the mummy couldn't tell where Adam was, and he would have preferred to have that bit of knowledge, so in a moment, he began to remove a few of the smaller rocks near the edge of the pile, hoping to catch sight of an arm, or a leg, or something else that might give him some bit of information about his accomplice's fate. He didn't have to dig for very long, however, before he found exactly that.

Adam's left leg was buried under a pile of small rocks, and Imhotep had to remove them one by one. It was dangerous work, because at any moment, it seemed like the larger chunks of stone might come falling down and crush him, but he kept working anyway, until at last, he could see Adam's leg clearly, still wearing the same pair of large, worn pants, which had recently been torn in several places, and his boots were recognizable too. However, that was when something happened that Imhotep hadn't been expecting. A spark flew from the end of Adam's boot with a sharp snapping noise, and soon, his leg had started to move. That was when Imhotep knew that he had to get out of the way in a hurry.

Quickly, the mummy rushed to the other side of the room, and as it turned out, he was just in time, because Adam's leg was already bracing itself against the ground. Soon, the whole pile of rocks had started trembling, and large chunks of stone were falling all around him. At last, the main body of the pile rose up into the air, and there was Adam, standing back upright, with both arms over his head, holding the body of one of the stone cats, which he'd apparently been lying under when the rocks had come down.

Adam was scraped up pretty badly all over, and he had some serious bruises and cuts all along his arms. His clothing had several large rips in it as well, but nevertheless, he was still alive, and in only a moment longer, he'd tossed the cat-statue and the rocks away, where the debris came crashing down among the treasure, and for some reason, Imhotep felt strange when he saw that. It was odd, because he'd never placed much trust in any of his teammates before that point, or even really thought of them as equals, but something about the realization that Adam had survived the battle pleased Imhotep, and he couldn't even explain what it was.

Still, it seemed like Adam's injuries hadn't impeded his ability to use his arms or legs. He did seem to have busted up one eye, but he wasn't missing any important body parts, and in a way, that was what amazed Imhotep most of all. Adam's real effectiveness didn't lie in his mere physical strength, or in any of the other powers he'd gradually learned to use. It was just that for some reason, when the chips were down, he always seemed to be the one standing in the end.

Fortunately, as much pain as he must have been in, Adam still seemed to understand the situation, because he'd already begun calming down and started looking at Imhotep with a questioning stare. After what he'd just seen, the mummy knew that he had to give Adam all the information he wanted.

"The statue of Osiris is broken as well," Imhotep explained, "but right now, massive hailstones are descending on this temple, so we need to hurry."

Adam just nodded at that point, and without even bothering to ask permission, he lifted Imhotep back onto one shoulder, and leapt over the pile of boulders, charging down the following hallways like lightning. In seconds, he'd gone all the way through that chamber, and, Imhotep realized, two others, as well as three more hallways, before he arrived at a familiar sight for the mummy; the pool of insight. Adam seemed to suspect that it might have been the pool they were looking for as well, so he stopped where he was, waiting for the mummy's word.

"Yes." Imhotep said, "This is it. This will only take a moment."

Adam put the mummy down quickly, and in a few seconds, Imhotep had reached the pool, sitting down next to it, and peering into its surface. The waters in that pool had remained untouched for thousands upon thousands of years, and yet, there was no sign of slime or algae in the pool; the water was still as clear as crystal, and the pool itself clean and spotless. Of course, that was the least of the miraculous things about that particular pool of water.

Quickly, Imhotep waved one hand over the pool, focusing his thoughts hard on the nature of his problem, and what he was trying to accomplish; locating the source of his weakness, and at once, the surface of the pool began to change, revealing a sight which, for the mummy, was far too familiar.

A deep, dark crevasse filled with suffering, brutal people stretched out before him in that pool, all trying their best to destroy one another, yet never truly able to perish. Empty rage, hate and ravenous cravings were outlined in the face of every person there except one; a bald man lying in the dust with both eyes closed, as though he were unconscious. It was Imhotep's old body; the one that he'd left behind in that nightmarish underworld, and it was completely unconscious; utterly without its soul. It was no wonder, Imhotep thought, that Osiris had been so angry with him. When Dracula had restored him to life, it had taken his soul back from the underworld, leaving only his body behind, then created a new body out of the magic power he'd once lost.

It had been a long time since he'd thought about it, but Imhotep remembered how he'd first fallen into the underworld; how a crack had opened in the temple of the scorpion king, and he'd found himself falling, body and soul, into the dark, blazing underworld beneath. Of course, Imhotep had expected to be treated badly by the gods after his death. He'd betrayed Egypt more than once, after all. In fact, the only reason he'd felt secure in his power in the past, was that he'd been sure that he could become truly immortal if only he could restore Anck-su-namun to life, and slay all those who'd desecrated his tomb in Hamunaptra. In the past, however, the gods had always interfered to stop him from growing too powerful. First he'd been vanquished by Isis, then by the book of Amon-Ra, then by Anubis, and most recently, he'd been attacked by an avenger of Thoth, and a guardian of Osiris. Human beings had interfered in his plans as well, from time to time, but they barely registered in his memory, because they didn't seem quite as significant. It was really the magic of the gods that had always been used to defeat him, and it was that magic that worried him.

Of course, what worried the mummy even more were the images that he was seeing in that pool. Somehow, it seemed that the loss of his original body was responsible for weakening him. He'd been hoping that there was more to it than that. However, the moment that his thoughts turned in that direction, the vision in the pool changed again, showing the image of an eye, made out of stone, and radiating green light, but that, Imhotep also knew already. The eyes of the statues had drained his magic power, turning him mortal for a time, but it wasn't permanent, and he could already feel his powers returning. There had to be more, he reasoned.

Soon, however, the image in the pool changed again, and that was when Imhotep saw something that really did surprise him; the one thing that he hadn't even considered. It was an image of Anck-su-namun, just as she'd appeared so many thousands of years ago; still beautiful, and...

However, as Imhotep watched, the image of the woman in the pool began to change, degenerating and aging. Her body began to sag, her bones lose their strength, and her hair turned gray, then white. Wrinkles appeared all over her hands, face and arms as her nose and ears grew larger with age, and at last, her eyes closed, and her whole body began to degenerate even further, decomposing visibly all over, until nothing was left but dust. It was such a shocking sight, that Imhotep barely noticed the booming sound of another hailstone striking from almost directly above, but he understood what the vision had been trying to tell him.

As much as he may have tried to deny it, or avoid it, Anck-su-namun had continued to influence Imhotep, even after her betrayal. It wasn't that he was fixated on acquiring her love, the way he once had been. Anck-su-namun had never learned how to love. The problem was that while Imhotep had learned to hate her for her betrayal, he'd also been soured to women in general by it. There had once been a time when he would have accepted the idea of women owning property, though it might still have worried him a bit, but Anck-su-namun's betrayal had only magnified his feelings of misogyny, which had once been almost purely cultural. Just once, he'd reached out to a helpless woman, to try to liberate her from the slave master she'd been bound to, and she had responded by betraying him; leaving him to perish in the underworld alone. It had damaged his whole view of the world, and robbed him of the chance of finding real love, as long as he continued to agonize over it. In fact, in a sense, it was his greatest weakness.

It was a truth so sharp, that it drove through Imhotep like a knife. For thousands of years, he'd comforted himself with the thought that even death couldn't truly stop him; that death was only the beginning, and yet, in the end, if he really wanted to be strong again; to be useful again, he knew that Anck-su-namun had to die to him, beyond any hope of being restored. It was something that only he could accomplish, in the very depths of his heart, and it was the only other thing that he could do for the world, after all that he'd taken from it in his attempts to help the woman he'd cared about; the woman who hadn't been worthy of his trust.

That, Imhotep realized, was going to take some work. There was no denying that Anck-su-namun had been a huge factor in his life. Un-learning all the prejudices she'd taught him was going to be a long and difficult process; not one that he could accomplish in that room. Still, he was sure that it would make him stronger, if he could accomplish it. The pool of insight never lied.

However, as Imhotep stood up again, and turned back to face Adam, he could see that Frankenstein's creation had just finished putting something in one of his pockets, and he could hardly blame the monster for wanting to pocket some treasure, just in case things worked out, and human society was somehow salvaged. In his place, Imhotep would have done the same, but it seemed that Adam had something else to ask, before they left.

"Can this pool be used by anyone?"

"Yes." Imhotep replied, however, "Reaching it is the challenge. If you want to use it for something yourself, you can. Just wave your hand over it, and picture in your mind what you want it to reveal to you."

Quickly, Adam walked over to the pool, looking, for a moment, as if he were thinking hard about what to ask it for, but finally, he waved his hand over it, and almost immediately, an image appeared on its surface; an image of a place that didn't look familiar to Imhotep at all.

The image was of a small room; about the size of a normal office, with plastic and metal walls. It was a strange room, because over half of it was packed with large machines, and flat computer screens. There were also a series of wires hooked up to many of those devices, which, in turn, were attached to metal rings of some kind, which looked about the width of a normal person's forefinger, though what purpose they served, Imhotep couldn't say. However, none of the machines were being used by the room's two inhabitants, who were talking with one another. One was standing up, looking shocked and horrified, while the other was seated in a small chair, looking much less shocked, but very grave and morose. They both looked basically human, but the one in the chair had very dark hair, and the one standing up had bright red hair, and dark eyebrows. Both of them wore jumpsuits that looked as if they'd been made from some kind of flexible plastic, with the luster of silver, and they were clearly talking about something very important, to gauge from the expressions on their faces.

Imhotep watched the two figures carefully, paying close attention whenever their expressions changed, but although he could see both of them talking, he couldn't hear what was said, and it worried him. What really worried him, however, was when he looked over at Adam, because the expression on Adam's face was as cold as stone, as if he'd somehow been able to hear what those two figures were discussing, and was incredibly shocked by their words.

Soon, the being with the red hair looked as if he was growing irritated, and shrugged his shoulders, but the one sitting down started to look even sadder at that point, donning an almost pleading expression. However, he was getting no sympathy from his red-haired friend. The red-haired man just said a few words with a stern expression on his face, then opened a nearby door, and left the room without another motion of his lips. It might, Imhotep thought, have been a dramatic scene, if only he'd been able to hear what they were talking about. Still, Adam looked like he'd gotten something out of it, and a moment later, he got to his feet and turned back towards Imhotep, still looking very serious.

"I assume I don't need to carry you back to the exit." Adam said almost emotionlessly.

Imhotep could already hear the walls around them buckling under the continual assault of the hailstones outside. Still, his strength was returning, and he had a feeling that that hail wasn't going to do him much harm at that point, even if he didn't stop it. Adam didn't look worried either, for some reason.

"I'll meet you at the front door." the mummy replied, and in just a moment, he'd changed his form again, and a cascade of sand rushed down the hallways of the temple, and back towards the treasure chamber that they'd entered through. Adam started off only a second later, dashing as fast as he could, and noticing the rumbling and crashing continuing from outside, though it seemed to be slightly slowing down as he ran; the time between tremors increasing.

* * *

To Adam's surprise, it seemed that something within the ancient temple had actually been damaged by whatever was going on outside, because more than one piece of a massive statue, or large chunk of stone fell to the floor while he was running. Still, they could only fall so quickly, and at the speed he was running at, it wasn't too hard to dodge them. The tough part was ignoring the pain that he was still in. However, as Adam ran, he could feel the electricity in his body building up, charging him with energy, and that gave him another idea, even before he'd made it back outside the temple.

It seemed that Imhotep had finished regenerating from his injuries, and had somehow stopped the storm that he'd started with his magic. However, Adam had never been able to regenerate quite that easily, though he had once been healed of minor injuries by a powerful electric charge. He'd been thinking about that just recently, and it had given him an idea of how he might be able to regenerate somewhat himself.

Using the charge that his body had built up during his jogs through the temple, Adam started to channel power into his hands and outward, through his outer flesh, then back into his body's reserves again. He wasn't sure if it would work, or if it would just make him weaker, but while it did tire him out a bit, he could also feel his wounds slowly starting to mend themselves. His cuts and bruises were gradually sealing up on their own; several times faster than a normal person's would, and at last, after about thirty seconds of standing completely still and redistributing his power, Adam felt the pain starting to diminish as well. The only exception, strangely, was his eye, which he still couldn't see out of, but he eventually decided to just have Dobson take a look at it when they got back to the base.

"Alright." Adam said to Imhotep just a moment later, "I'm ready to go back."

"Yes. Yes, alright." Imhotep replied, though he still looked a little distracted, even as he changed his form again, becoming a massive cyclone of sand, and sweeping Adam Frankenstein up into the air with the sheer force of his momentum. In moments, they were on their way back towards London, though Adam still felt a little worried about what he'd just seen through his remaining good eye; the sight that had been shown to him in that pool, when he'd read the lips of those two human-like, alien beings.

* * *

"You must be joking." the red-haired one said, "Could they really be so forgetful?"

"It's not that, Andari." the dark-haired one had explained ruefully, "They remember the stories that their parents and grandparents told them, but it seems that they no longer even trust the accounts of previous generations. Their skepticism extends to the entire history of their planet; not just to contemporary reports. In fact, for the most part, they seem to trust recent reports more. I can't think of any other reason why they would have both ignored my warnings, and denied the threats that their ancestors faced."

"But I don't understand, Klaatu." Andari replied, "I read your report on Earth culture before, and they were nowhere near that foolish or arrogant. What could have happened to them since your last visit?"

"I don't have all the information on that, yet." Klaatu said, however, still looking just as grim as before, "It seems that there's been some kind of cultural movement in their major, dominant societies over the last thirty to forty years, telling them to question everything, and to discard careful reason when it becomes inconvenient. There are many factors to this movement, and it's changed many things about their people. I knew their planet's history; I knew that again and again, they built mighty empires, only to see them fall a while later, when the empires turned to decadence and depravity, and lost the power to support themselves. I... I had hoped that they might have been able to circumvent that pattern this time. The power of space flight is too dangerous to leave in the hands of the depraved or the fallen and weak. You know that as well as I do."

"Better, perhaps." Andari had responded, his face suddenly growing stern, though he gave a slight shrug at that point, "Klaatu, I can't solve this problem for you, but I would like to make one request. I want you to use the final command code. Let me join the attack against Earth."

However, it didn't take Klaatu even a second to respond to that.

"Under no circumstances. This job is mine. These Earthlings never did anything to harm you anyway. Go back to your simulations if you want revenge."

"You never understood what it was like for me!" Andari exclaimed, suddenly growing angry, and with a scowl, he'd turned on his heel, and left the room without another word.

* * *

The scene had brought many worries to Adam Frankenstein's mind. He wasn't sure exactly why, but if those two were the aliens who they were being attacked by, then they were both in a very tragic situation. It seemed that the aliens saw mankind as incredibly dangerous for some reason, but what the nature of that danger was, he couldn't say. Still, it gave him something to think about as they traveled back across the sea, towards Europe.

* * *

Adam had been continuing to channel electric power through his body, during the entire trip back to London, but for some reason, his eye still showed so signs of healing, and he was starting to suspect that it might actually have been damaged beyond repair during his last fight. However, when he got back to the mansion, it seemed that someone had been waiting for him to return. Bay was still standing outside, of course, having nowhere else to really go, but the one who really surprised Adam was Dracula, who was looking just a bit more irritated than he usually did, as if Adam had done something very wrong by leaving.

Imhotep still seemed distracted, even when he deposited Adam on the ground and resumed his human form, as if he had a lot on his mind at the time, so for the moment, Adam had the chance to talk to the vampire who was leading their group, and find out at least a little bit about whatever problem seemed to be bothering him.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked, without bothering to say hello to the vampire for even a moment, but it seemed that Dracula wasn't even slightly distracted by his companion's lack of etiquette. He just replied with the same brutal efficiency as before.

"Mister Hammerson is missing."

Adam swallowed a bit when he heard that. If nothing else, Barry had just proven that he was more dangerous than any other werewolf that Adam had ever seen, and no one else knew his weakness. It was possible that he'd realized that Adam had left the base for a while, and was trying to locate him, but then again, it was also possible that he'd gotten carried away with his frustration, and just struck off on his own. Adam had no idea what the werewolf might be thinking, but the worst part was that he also had no idea what Dracula had been thinking, and a moment later, he made sure to express that.

"Where were you when this was happening?" Adam asked, "Listening to a stereo or something?"

"I was... otherwise occupied." Dracula replied evasively, looking like he really didn't want to tell Adam any more than he absolutely had to, "I had a meeting with someone very important on the other side of the city. That was why I neither saw nor smelled what was happening here. Hammerson seems to have run off while I was away, and I had hoped that he might have confided in you about what his plans were."

For a moment, Adam really wanted to say something acidic to the vampire lord about that, but it wasn't really important. What really mattered was finding Barry again, as quickly as possible.

"Are you telling me that you can't track him down?" Adam asked, but the vampire looked incensed when he was asked that, and he replied with even greater aggravation than ever.

"If I could, it would be at the expense of much of the power I've been gathering these past few nights. Seeing through the eyes of all my servants at once consumes much of my energy, and I've been trying to prepare myself for the next attack, which you know will come soon."

For some reason, everything that Dracula said made Adam want to tear him wide open. That last reply, in particular, had sounded self-centered and egotistical in the extreme. Dracula had a chance; though perhaps not an overwhelmingly good one, to locate Barry himself; to solve the problem that he'd noticed, and yet, he'd more or less refused to do that, right to Adam's face, just because he didn't want to look weak in front of his new teammates, or perhaps because he didn't trust any of them enough to rely on them to defend him until he could regain his lost strength. It was the kind of decision that only a paranoid fool would have made, and yet, it wasn't totally unexpected. Dracula had a reputation for being too careful and leaving nothing to chance. It was the very reason he'd managed to rise so high in human society, but on the other hand, it was also the reason why he'd more than once been cornered by pursuers who he probably could have defeated in straightforward combat. Dracula's caution might have been handy in acquiring the kind of human authority that had once meant so much, but taken by itself, it only revealed just what a cold and ruthless man he still was.

Without another word, Adam brushed right past Dracula, and descended into the base just a short time later, saying aloud "Nancy, I could use your help with this."

Although Nancy Archer was probably halfway across the base by that point, Adam knew that she'd be able to hear what he'd just said, and she'd probably be willing to help out, which meant that there was only one more person who Adam wanted to talk to before he went anywhere.

* * *

In just a few moments, the creation of Frankenstein stepped into Dobson's lab, where he found her putting the finishing touches on yet another large machine component. She was already dressed in her armor, underneath her clothes, for some reason, which looked like it had even more parts than the last time that Adam had seen it, and she was closing a metal doorway on the device she'd just been working on, putting down the mini-lantern that she'd been using to see inside the device from underneath. A moment later, she slid out from under it, righted herself surprisingly quickly for somewhere wearing so much metal under her long, white lab coat, and when Adam saw the look on her face, he started feeling just a little bit scared of her again.

Dobson's smile was broader than Adam had ever seen it. It had spread out, revealing almost all of her teeth, and her eyes were open much wider than ever. In fact, she looked as if she was hyped up on some kind of stimulant, though Adam didn't feel it would be prudent to ask about that.

"Doctor Dobson..." Adam said as she started removing the black gloves that she'd been wearing, "There's two problems. First, Barry's gone missing."

"Second, you need your eye replaced." Dobson observed, only needing a glance to tell that, "Of course, I'll be delighted to help you solve both problems, but which should I start with?"

However, after the selfishness that Adam had just seen Dracula display, he knew that he couldn't put himself first anymore.

"Let's locate Barry first." he said, at which point, Dobson had finished removing her gloves, and in only another moment, she'd pressed her left hand against a panel on the nearby wall, cackling to herself as she did so. Soon, the panel started glowing with a red light from the other side, but Dobson just kept smiling in satisfaction, as nearly half of the wall next to it started sliding up, revealing a truly stunning sight.

"I knew you'd say that." Dobson responded, still laughing to herself between sentences, "Welcome to my data center, Adam."


	17. Chapter 17: Kelly Cartwright

Chapter 17: Kelly Cartwright

* * *

The room that Dobson had called her "data center" was a fairly big room with walls the color of healthy grass. There were machines throughout the room, hooked up to what looked almost like a fusion reactor, except noticeably smaller. Sparkling lights blinked on and off on most of the consoles in that room, and right in the center, there was a strange-looking contraption with what looked like a satellite dish on it, with a computer screen beneath it. Adam couldn't tell what all those machines were for, but they certainly looked impressive, and he was surprised that Dobson had managed to build them so quickly. In fact, he was so surprised by that, that he knew he had to at least bring it up.

"Dobson... How on Earth did you set all this up so fast? I mean, you're working every time I see you, but..."

Dobson looked a bit surprised by the question at first, but at last, she replied to him with a smile, "I discovered some secrets about building techniques when I analyzed the alien nanotechnology that the first invading space ship was made out of, but that's not the important thing. Come over here..."

Quickly, Adam found himself being led across the data center, towards the computer terminal, underneath the tiny satellite-dish-like object, though it seemed to actually be something else entirely, because when Adam got closer to it, he could see that its antenna hadn't been designed to receive signals from space. In seconds, however, Dobson began punching keys just under the computer screen, and the dish started rotating around, as she gave it its commands. Finally, something began to display on the screen; an image of several black dots, spread out across a map of the world, and one of those dots was larger than the others. Adam wasn't sure what it meant, but Dobson began punching more keys a moment later anyway, zooming in on the large dot, until she'd pinpointed its location in the Midwestern United States; a town called Markswood, in northern Nebraska.

"I'm sure that's where Barry is." Dobson said with a confident grin, "It's the biggest power expulsion field in the world right now."

However, Adam could already tell that he was missing out on something important.

"What's a power expulsion field?" he asked, hoping that Dobson would be able to explain it quickly.

"A new kind of energy I discovered recently, which seems to mainly interfere with other kinds of energy, and force them out of its range. I discovered it relatively recently, but Barry gives off a very strong field of that kind, and because he's a werewolf, his body doesn't need the energy to survive. In fact, I'd say that the less energy he has traveling through him, the greater his powers will grow. His lycanthropy seems to feed off the inability of his body's natural energy to resist. It's totally different from anything else I've ever seen before."

However, Adam was still feeling very confused.

"I can't figure out how he got all the way back to North America."

"Honestly, I'm not sure about that either." Dobson replied, "It's possible that he might have stolen a supernatural relic from Lord Dracula, or maybe his powers are greater than we realized, even without transforming. Still, he's there right now, and I bet you want to follow him. Who were you planning to bring along?"

In a way, Adam was a little surprised to find Dobson looking to him as a mission commander, but then, he had saved her life not too long ago, and she still had things she wanted from him. Eventually, he replied "You, myself and Nancy. The others should stay behind, just in case the aliens return."

Dobson looked a little surprised when Adam said that, but after just a moment. she'd started smiling again, and moved back away from the computer terminal, leading him back outside of the data center, closing it behind her, and then stepping out into the hallway, just beyond the lab. It was only once they were back outside of the lab that Dobson spoke again, smiling brightly.

"I've only just finished the last part to this machine, and I wasn't planning on using it immediately, but under the circumstances, I suppose we don't have a choice. If Nancy's coming along, the lab devices aren't going to be sufficient."

Adam had no idea what Dobson meant by that, but soon, they were heading down halls towards another doorway; much bigger than the door to the lab, and fortunately, that was where Nancy met them; dressed in another army uniform, though it wasn't quite the same one she'd been wearing the day before, because the stitching was a bit finer, and the boots had a scuff-mark on the front. She was already leaning down on the ground, looking at Dobson and Adam with a polite smile on her face, though she was still clearly upset about something. However, she didn't bother to say a word about it, and just a moment later, Dobson opened the large door in front of them; revealing an empty room on the other side, with a window fairly high up on the far wall, and a series of huge, thick belts attached to the walls as well. The room was only about thirty-five feet tall, so Nancy would need to sit down on the floor if she wanted to fit inside, but at least she could still squeeze into that room, and Adam was sure that was Dobson's intention. Still, just to be on the safe side, he asked her, "Now what?"

"Nancy can stay here during our commute." Dobson replied, "It has to be as small a chamber as possible, or it won't be able to travel by the means I've got planned."

"There's one thing I don't get." Adam replied to Dobson, however, before Nancy could do anything or go anywhere, "You've clearly unlocked the secret of teleportation, so why can't we just teleport there?"

For a moment, Dobson looked puzzled, but at last, she started to frown when she replied to him.

"Unfortunately, my own teleporter only functions because I was able to reverse-engineer a heat-based power source stronger than any other portable power battery. Teleportation eats up power like mad, and the bigger you are, the more power it gobbles up. With a week to work on it, I might be able to figure out how to teleport a big lug like you, but Nancy weighs over a thousand times what I do. I'd never be able to find enough power to pull off a teleportation machine for her, without access to a very different kind of power source."

Nancy was truly scowling at Dobson by that point, though she didn't say anything about it aloud. It was possible that the two had some unpleasant history together, or that one of them had badly upset the other in the past, and wasn't quite willing to let it go, but for some reason, Nancy was clearly angry with Dobson. Of course, she might just have been angry over something simple, like because she was talking about Nancy as if she wasn't there, or because she'd brought up her weight. Adam couldn't really tell.

Still, that did give Adam all the answers he needed to justify what Dobson was doing. She couldn't just teleport Nancy, so they needed to take a different route. All the same, he felt obligated to turn away from Dobson for a moment, look up into Nancy's eyes with a sad expression on his face, and apologize briefly. However, as soon as the word "sorry" escaped his lips, Nancy's smile returned, and she started shaking her head quickly, as if to let him know that she understood. Before long, she was climbing into the containment chamber, sitting on the floor, and waiting for the next stage of the mad scientist's plan.

Adam was a little surprised to see that Dobson's next move was to enter a much smaller door, right next to the very large one that Nancy had just stepped into. He followed her inside, but the room within was nothing special; just one of Dobson's heat-based elevators, and although he was a little confused to find that they were traveling away from the room they'd just left Nancy in, he decided not to ask any more questions about it just yet. Soon, the elevator doors had opened again, and inside was what looked like a blank, metal room with an eight-foot-high ceiling, which was curved, rather than square on one end.

"Did we miss a turn?" Adam asked, finally starting to doubt Dobson a little bit, but she was still smiling, so, he realized, something had to be up.

"I didn't want it to be obvious what this room was for until I was ready." Dobson just explained, almost as if Adam hadn't even spoken, "After all, this is my biggest creation in a while. Can't let just anyone find out about it, hmmm?"

With those words, Dobson walked over to the far end of the room, and pushed her thumb against what looked like a blank section of the wall. Almost instantly, a piece of the wall right next to her opened up, revealing a computer terminal. Adam thought he had some idea of where she was going with that, but as it turned out, there were even bigger surprises in store for him when she was finished typing a password into the machine. Suddenly, the whole room was changing; metal plates were being slid aside by tiny, metallic arms, revealing more instruments, readouts and control panels, and a large section of the room's upper wall had changed as well; transforming into a window, which seemed to surround the entire chamber, except for one wall. Adam couldn't see anything outside of that window, but he was already starting to realize just what Dobson was planning. That room wasn't just some storage closet, or even a spare lab or scanning chamber; it was a cockpit.

Dobson had already moved from one control panel to another, and was entering more commands into her creation, but by that point, Adam already had some idea of what was going to happen, even before a command chair rose out of the floor, and several monitoring screens took their places on the ceiling above it. It was as if the whole room around him was made entirely of interchangeable parts.

Soon, Adam found his attention being drawn to the ceiling screens, which showed the grounds just outside of Dracula's mansion, but as he watched in amazement, two things began to happen at once. Light started streaming in through the cockpit's windows, and the grassy terrain that he could see on the ceiling screens began to fold upward, as if it were a piece of paper, being bent by invisible hands. It was, Adam thought in amazement, absolutely stunning.

Of course, what Adam was seeing was essentially a concealed hangar door, and in moments, the whole chamber that he was in began to tremble and rise upward, and on the video screens, something else was happening. The hangar doors had opened the rest of the way, and something was visibly rising out of them, something very large, with what looked like eight or nine discs, rotating around it on metal arms. Tiny, flaming jets shot downward from each of those discs, and from the main body of the craft itself, which resembled a strange cross between a helicopter and a gyroscope, with a huge, metal sphere in the middle, to serve as carrying space, and right on top, there was the cockpit for steering the thing; the very same cockpit that Adam was standing inside.

Frankenstein already felt stunned by the sheer sight of that craft; the first machine that had flown under its own power, since the electricity had disappeared. Parts of it looked as if they'd been borrowed from the alien saucer that they'd recently been attacked by, though it was obvious that Dobson wasn't about to reveal its full secrets just yet; not even to Adam.

Once the unique aircraft was clear of the hangar doors, it moved with much greater speed, rising up into the air like a rocket, then rotating its jets again, and zipping off through the air towards the Atlantic Ocean. Soon, it was out of range of whatever signal the ceiling screens had been designed to receive, because they all went blank just a moment later, and Dobson, after punching a few more keys, leaned back into the room's central chair with a sigh; apparently enjoying herself.

For a few moments, Adam found that he couldn't take his eyes off that chair. Time after time, while he'd been working with Dobson, she'd surprised him with some breakthrough, or by discovering new things about him, or helping him with a problem that he had. However, it seemed that she still had what it took to surprise him all over again, because he'd never even imagined that she might be able to create such a large and strange aircraft in such a short amount of time. Her genius seemed almost boundless, and for a moment, he wasn't sure what to say.

However, even as he was contemplating all the incredible things that Dobson had done, what wound up surfacing in Adam's mind was someone else entirely. Specifically, the US army colonel who was sitting alone in the chamber below them, who must have been at least a little uncomfortable in that room, even if her excellent hearing had clued her in to some of what was going on.

Adam really wanted to say something to Nancy at that point; to try to reassure her that she wasn't in any danger, and that they'd make it to their destination in one piece. However, at that point, he came to a realization that he was surprised he hadn't thought of before. No matter what he said, to Dobson or Nancy, it wasn't going to stay a secret from anyone in that group. He hadn't really intended it that way, but Adam had wound up bringing along both female members of his team, and they both had highly-enhanced senses of hearing. There was no keeping secrets from either of them.

For a few moments, Adam felt pretty foolish for not realizing that sooner, but at last, he decided that if possible, it would make him feel better to talk to Nancy in person, so he made one last request to Dobson.

"Is there some way I can go talk to Nancy face to face?"

Dobson's chair rotated for a moment, and she looked a little confused, but finally, she punched a button on her left armrest, and just like that, a hatch popped open in the floor, with a ladder attached to the wall right underneath it. Just below that hatch, Adam was amazed to see, was Nancy. He could only see a small section of her face from where he was, but it was enough, for the moment. He didn't even need to climb down.

"Nancy?" Adam asked, immediately drawing her attention. She didn't exactly look surprised to see him, but she did put on a brave smile a moment later, and Adam started to get the impression that she was waving at him, for some reason.

"Hi, Adam." Nancy said, looking up into his good eye for a few moments, and clearly cheered up by his desire to be supportive of her, even if it didn't mean much of anything in practical terms, "I guess we're on our way now."

"It shouldn't take us long to get there at this speed." Adam admitted at last, though he wasn't really sure just how fast they were flying; only that it was faster than he could run, "I had to make sure you were okay, though."

"Well, thank you." Nancy replied with a relieved-looking nod, "It's a little cramped in here, but I'll be fine once I can get back out and stretch my legs."

Adam nodded back to the tremendous army colonel a moment later, though he didn't close the hatch door when their conversation ground to a halt. Somehow, he just preferred the idea of leaving it open, and being able to check on Miss Archer any time he wanted to, even as the unique aircraft continued on over the ocean, zipping towards the United States with absolutely overwhelming speed.

* * *

Soon, Adam was dashing in the direction of Markswood, across the fields of Nebraska. It had been a while since he'd been there, and a part of him wanted to run off and talk with Brieve again; at least one more time before the next invasion could get underway. However, he had much bigger concerns to worry about. He was already close enough to the town, that his own sharp ears could pick up the sound of Barry's voice.

Barry was closer to the southern end of town, and he sounded like he was talking with a girl, who...

Quickly, Adam sped up his pace, already beginning to panic. Dobson had found the town where Barry had retreated to, and Nancy had confirmed that he was there with her incredible hearing, but Adam knew that in the end, he was the one who'd have to track Barry down. Dobson wouldn't want to leave her new aircraft unattended, and Nancy probably would have made matters worse if she'd wandered too close to town. Someone needed to find Barry, and maybe even subdue him again, and as much as Adam Frankenstein hated to think about it, that was a job that only he could really do.

* * *

"Barry, don't take this the wrong way," Kelly Cartwright said, looking just as nervous as ever, "but the last time I saw you, you... you..."

Barry felt very torn up inside as he looked back at Kelly one last time. She was just as beautiful as ever to him, but he knew that he couldn't afford to care about that anymore. He was already in too much danger of losing control of his temper, and if he did, it would be a catastrophe for both of them. Still, in a way, that was the very reason that he'd gone to see her.

"I know, Kelly." Barry replied, "If I thought it would help to say I'm sorry, I would. Right now, though, I can't think of any way to fix what happened. I... I've had to grow up pretty fast these last few days. I wish things could be different."

However, at that point, Kelly stared right into his eyes, seemingly tossing aside her fear as she stood on the doorstep of her parents' house; a small, blue and brown home, with just enough room for a tiny family to live in it. It was getting close to Christmas, and her parents had hung a new plant from the hook on the wall next to her front door; a beautiful plant with deep green leaves and red flowers. Barry's eyes kept straying to that plant as he talked, because he found that it helped to calm him down just a little, even during that tense discussion. However, it seemed that Kelly had something to say to him at last.

"Barry, I want things to be like they were before. I don't want you to be a football star, or an athlete, and I don't want you chopping up wood with your fingernails. I just want... I just... I want things to be like they were before... back when you were a skinny, little boy with no friends, and I was the girl at the pet store."

"I... I do too." Barry replied, not sure what else to say.

"You do?" Kelly asked, still looking scared, but also with a bit of sympathy in her eyes again, "Barry, you really want things to be like they were?"

Barry did hesitate for a moment at that point, but it wasn't out of uncertainty. Once he'd started seriously considering it, he'd understood that he didn't want the life of power, savagery and hate that the lycanthropy had been forcing him into. He liked small animals, computers, and young ladies, not hunting and raw meat. He'd been thrown off, at first, because those impulses had been so new and so strong, but he was starting to realize a thing or two about himself, and about the world he'd grown up in as well.

"There's nothing else I want." Barry said at last, drawing a smile back to Kelly's face for a moment. However, that smile disappeared again, when she heard what he had to say next.

"The problem is, I know I can't have that kind of life; not anymore. Not after what happened; what I did. I'm cursed, Kelly. I'm... I'm cursed."

"Barry..." Kelly said at last, a single tear starting to travel down her left cheek, unimpeded by the cold winter air all around them, "If you want, I could try to get in touch with somebody who could help you. I mean, you never know if there's a cure for curses until you look for one, and I can think of a lot of people who'd love to help you find one. It'd probably make them famous."

However, Barry had to struggle hard to keep the anger out of his voice when he replied to those words.

"That's not the curse I'm talking about. Kelly, there's another reason why I can't have my old life back, even if I could find a cure. I... I have a new life now, and a lot of responsibilities. Everyone's in trouble now, and if I don't do something..."

"Someone else can do something about it!" Kelly insisted, clearly growing upset with Barry's objections, "You need help! Just let me call a few doctors, and..."

"I can't." Barry replied, however, already feeling utterly helpless as he continued trying to explain himself, "A little while ago, a friend of mine told me that I couldn't let myself slip; that I always had to keep my eyes on what the right thing to do was, and... Well, he was right, but while I was trying to figure that out, something else occurred to me, and that's that as bad as it may be hurting me, I have to do all I can to help people. Otherwise, I've got no reason for trying to fight these savage thoughts off at all. I can understand if you hate me from now on; I hate myself, but this is the only way for me to do the right thing anymore, and if I want to stay in control, I have to prove to myself that I can still do that. I just... I just wanted you to understand."

However, before Barry could even finish his sentence, Kelly had rushed forward, and in only six steps, she was in his arms, embracing Barry Hammerson with all her might, and he barely even felt the evil urge that time. It was the most painful thing that Barry had ever gone through in his life, but it was also his greatest triumph.

At last, after several moments, Kelly released Barry again, looking into his eyes one last time, and there, even Barry could see what she meant with that look. She was saying good-bye to him, and wishing him good luck, and that made Barry feel much better. Even if he could never return to his old life again, it was still better, he decided, to part with the last remnants of that life on good terms.

Soon, Barry had started jogging back away from Kelly's house, leaving her behind, and towards the edge of town, where he'd caught a familiar scent in the air. Sure enough, as he approached, he caught sight of a seven-foot figure, standing behind a nearby house, and started feeling very aggravated again, though he did his best to hold it in check, if only to prove that he still could.

"I suppose you came to drag me back." Barry said, but Adam Frankenstein just shook his head a moment later.

"I was hoping that it wouldn't come to that." Adam said in reply, continuing to speak before long, "I'm happy for you, Barry. As soon as I got close enough, I realized that you were in much better control of yourself. That's why I didn't get any closer, or try to get the girl out of your grasp. I don't know what you've done, exactly, to improve your own self-control so much, but it's quite an accomplishment. Very few werewolves have the strength to face their problems like that."

For a moment, Barry started to feel elated, but then he felt the temptations starting to gain strength again, and remembered the terrible danger, and what a horrible threat it still was to him. At last, he fought down his exaltation and pride one more time, and when he spoke to Adam again, his voice was much softer than before.

"I'm sorry, but please don't ever compliment me again. The temptations are much weaker when I don't think much of myself."

Adam looked surprised and amazed by that for several moments, but he eventually just nodded with a smile, before speaking again.

"Dobson's built a new ship, and it's not too far from here. We can head back anytime, if you don't have anyone else to say good-bye to."

For just a moment, Barry paused, his thoughts wandering back towards his home, near the center of Markswood, but then he remembered something else about his home; something that didn't make him happy at all, when he thought about it in light of his recent experiences. For a moment, he almost heard that old, familiar voice in his head; driving him to try to escape from the world...

"Why can't you get your face out of that computer screen and make a few friends? You're a disgrace to this household!"

Then, Barry remembered, with horror, the same voice, telling him completely different things, much more recently.

"I always knew you'd turn things around someday. I can't wait to tell my friends about that last game, Barry. I'm so proud of you! You're finally a winner!"

Barry swallowed hard at that point, because that was how his mother had always been. She'd been the child of a previous generation, and had never stopped to think about how others felt. When she didn't like somebody, she made sure to tell them that, and when she was happy with them, she never stopped heaping praise on them. Whenever others were happy about something, she completely ignored them, and when they weren't happy about something, she always piped up with her own opinion, as if knowing how she felt would make people feel better. Emily Hammerson had been one of the most self-centered people who Barry had ever met, when he stopped to think about it for a moment, though admittedly, he'd been very selfish as well, back then, so the only thing he'd really noticed had been her tendency to ignore him and make him mad.

When Barry had been young, his mother had scorned him openly on a regular basis; even sometimes in front of her friends, because he wasn't very social or popular, and didn't have a bold, ambitious spirit, like many of his classmates. That, of course, had only made him retreat into himself even more, and when he'd finally begun to experience the effects of lycanthropy, his mother seemed to have taken it very well. Apparently, she'd never seen him in his transformed state, but she did recognize that he was becoming more athletic, and better known at his school; especially once he joined the football team, to try to find an expression for his feral aggression. She'd heaped praise on him at that point, swelling his head even more, and increasing his aggression further and further, and all the time, the one relationship he still cared about; his friendship with Kelly had started dying a slow death.

When the lights had finally gone out all over the world, the first one who Barry had thought about the safety of had been Kelly. He'd taken her away from all the other people of Markswood; his xenophobia the only real characteristic of his that had remained utterly untouched by his lycanthropy, but as it had turned out, he'd already been too far gone. His rage and his aggression had finally consumed him in that abandoned cottage, and he would undoubtedly have killed the one person he cared about most, if not for Adam's interference.

More than once, Adam had saved Barry, acting as his anchor, and helping to keep him from losing control. He'd stopped the young werewolf when he'd been transformed unexpectedly, and he'd been the one who'd given Barry ideas on how to master self control on his own. In a way, he owed everything to the patchwork man, and yet, he'd needed to go back to Markswood on his own, just to prove some things to himself. However, Barry knew that going back to his own home wasn't going to help anyone. In fact, he realized silently, trying to meet with his mother again might even destroy the progress that he'd made already. It made him sad, in a way, needing to leave her behind, but Barry knew that he couldn't risk seeing his mother anymore, and there was never anyone else who he'd felt that strongly-connected to in Markswood. That was why there was no more doubt in his voice a moment later, when he replied to Adam's suggestion.

"No. There's nobody else. We can go."

However, just then, something happened that made both monsters jump in surprise. A soft, but high-pitched whine had started up from within an old house nearby, and for just a moment, all across town, electric lights blinked back on. After that, they blinked off, then on again, then flickered for almost ten seconds, before finally turning back off one more time.

For a moment, Adam and Barry just looked at one another. The people in town had obviously just noticed what had happened, and were rushing out into the street to talk with one another about what it meant, though they didn't seem to be panicking just yet. However, Barry was worried that he understood why the lights had flickered on for a moment; something about the alien force that had robbed them of electricity was changing, and that was something to be very worried about.

Neither monster needed to say another word. Soon, they were both off an running with tremendous speed across the fields, and towards Dobson's ship again, feeling very confused and worried about what was going on.


	18. Chapter 18: It Begins

Chapter 18: It Begins

* * *

There were no polite greetings on the lips of Adam Frankenstein when he and Barry returned to Dobson's ship; no explanations for what had happened, or why Barry had gone to so much trouble to visit his old hometown again. The only words that left his mouth when he returned to the aircraft, stepped back out of the elevator, and into the cockpit were "What just happened, Dobson?"

However, it seemed that of all people, Dobson wasn't about to be offended by Adam's lack of etiquette. In fact, she'd already prepared a reply.

"The machine I used to detect the power expulsion fields is picking up huge sources of energy, and they're spreading out. Something's going on, Adam. I think they turned the power on for a moment to disguise their approach."

Of course, Adam knew what that meant. The aliens had returned, and from the sounds of things, they were finally executing their real plan. Quickly, he walked over to the computer screens that Dobson was looking up into, and although Adam needed to bend over to get a really good look at them, he could see numerous lights, spreading out across the screen, which was arranged like a map of the world. It looked as if, for some reason, the aliens were spreading their forces out, as if to make sure that no one got in their way when they executed the next phase of their plan. It was brutally-efficient, Adam realized, because there was no way that their team could intercept and stop all of those alien forces at once...

* * *

Sister Jessica Matsuda felt the tremors outside, along with everyone else, and but while the others were turning to look outside, and trying to determine what had just happened, she didn't even raise her eyes from her work, continuing to apply bandages to the broken arm of the young man in front of her. He was still wincing in pain as she did her best to patch him up, and his injury still looked pretty bad. It would take everything she had, she realized, to keep him from losing that arm, and the way things were going recently, he might never be able to find work again if he lost the use of his arm and hand for good. It was a life-or-death struggle, which meant that she couldn't let herself get distracted.

"Didn't you hear that, Sister Matsuda?" a familiar voice asked from nearby, "Something's outside; something you wouldn't believe. We need to move quickly."

"No." the sister just replied adamantly, "We can't move him yet. It's too dangerous. He could lose his arm if we try to move him too soon."

"Listen to me, sister!" the source of the voice replied, moving his face into her field of vision, until she could see the fish-like countenance of her recent partner, "We don't have time to worry about that. This may be hard for you to understand, but I've already seen what caused that tremor. It's a metal monster, and it's headed right for us. If we don't move, everyone here is going to die."

However, Sister Matsuda looked up into the Gill-man's eyes just a moment later, and the fierce, determined expression in those eyes was impossible to argue with, even before she said a word to him.

"Maybe. Maybe we will die, Gillman, but no one ever said that we could always succeed at everything we do. The important thing is to stay faithful, and give it our all. I know we'll be rewarded for doing that, even if it's not in this life, and I can't just let this boy lose his arm. I have to save him, or it's not worth escaping myself."

The entire reason why the Gill-man had started working with Sister Matsuda, helping poor, injured people in Venezuela, had been because he'd admired her commitment to caring for others, and yet, he'd never realized just how deep that commitment went, or just how firmly she believed in the promise of a reward for those who sacrificed for others. In the past, Sister Matsuda had given up lots of things that she might have wanted for herself, but the Gill-man had never seen her risk her life so directly before. It really gave him a lot to consider, and he only wished that he'd had more time to think about it.

Of course, the Gill-man hadn't been lying about the metal monster. He'd seen it descend like a meteor from the sky, and start storming towards the village where he and the good sister had been working. It was built more like an insect than a man, but its head and torso were armed with numerous weapons, and it was firing them at every large, living thing it passed by, as well as every human structure. Once, the Gill-man was ashamed to realize, he wouldn't have found that horrifying, but he'd learned better in recent years. If he really wanted the right to be furious with the people who'd hurt him in the past, he needed to be a better man than they were.

It burned him up inside, because the Gill-man had never been a man before, and as an animal, he'd never been held to a very high standard of conduct, but however it had happened, consciousness was the lot he'd been dealt. He hated it, but the responsibilities of that consciousness were his, whether he wanted them or not, and that was why he made his next decision so quickly and decisively. No matter what, he couldn't just let that monster walk over Sister Matsuda or her patients. She might not have felt that she was obligated to make things work out, but he did.

As people fled from the insectoid machine all around him, the Gill-man started sprinting again, rushing towards the alien weapon as quickly as he could, and it was only once he started his sprint, that he began to realize just how large the thing was. It had seemed smaller from the hospital, but the Gill-man could already tell, when he stepped over a hill, that the thing was easily larger than the entire village he'd been trying to save, not counting the extra distance that its six huge legs covered. It also had a pair of enormous, metal wings folded up on its back, and as soon as he realized that, he knew that even his strength wasn't enough to simply overpower a weapon like that. The thing was just too big. Still, it might have some kind of weakness, which just needed to be discovered before it could reach the village.

In moments, the Gill-man had gotten within range of the huge machine's weapons, and it had started firing at him. He'd seen what those weapons could do before, so he'd needed to hurry, in order to come up with some kind of response to them. In the end, he'd wound up tearing rocks up out of the ground, and throwing them into the paths of the beam weapons, before they could hit him. It didn't do any damage to the alien machine, but it bought him the time he needed to reach one of the creature's legs, and leap onto it just as it was rising into the air, clamping his hands around the metal to secure himself. Soon, he was climbing up the metal surface of that insectoid leg, putting dents in the metal as he went, and doing his best to hurry up the huge pole without losing his grip. The insect was a big kind of machine to explore, and he knew that it wouldn't be long before it came within firing range of the village.

At last, the Gill-man reached the solid sheet of metal, which made up the bottom of the mechanical insect. The creature had stopped firing at him the moment that he'd grabbed onto its leg, which in some ways, was unfortunate, since it would have probably vaporized one of its own legs if it hadn't. Still, that just meant that the machine was being controlled by someone or something intelligent. That would make it harder to fight, in some ways, but it also meant that whoever or whatever was in control of it could be disabled.

Quickly, the Gill-man drove his feet into the solid metal of the monstrous machine's legs to secure himself to it, then reached up with one hand, and started pulling on the metal plate directly overhead.

That was as much a struggle to maintain his balance as it was to dislodge the metal plate. The Gill-man could actually feel whatever kind of motors were powering the leg he was attached to straining under the effort of trying to keep it moving, while anchored in place by his body, and he could definitely feel that the power of that enormous leg was only a step away from tearing him in two. Still, he refused to give up, and at last, the metal plate came loose, and he tore it from its surroundings with one final yank, tossing it to the ground, far below. With that accomplished, the task of climbing into the main body of the metallic monster was only the work of a few seconds. However, the Gill-man was still amazed by the sight that greeted him inside the mechanical beast.

After his past experiences with the technology of the aliens, the half-fish had been expecting to see smooth, metallic walls and closed doorways inside the insect, but much to his surprise, it looked more like the inside of an antique clock, except slightly more advanced and complicated, and of course, much larger. There were wheels inside that machine; lots of wheels. Cables and connecting points were spread through it as well, as if the machine's locomotion was being driven by something as simple as an ordinary electric current, or even as if the whole thing was some wind-up, mechanical toy. There weren't even any platforms for people to stand on, as far as the Gill-man could see. The whole thing really did seem like more of a weapon than a vehicle. Still, building something that big, without any platforms for construction workers did seem to be another sign of the advanced technology that had been used in its construction.

Of course, the Gill-man knew that he couldn't slow down for even a second to think about the nature of the problem. The wheels inside of that thing were big, and spinning quickly, but there were a lot of them too, so he grabbed one as fast as he could, letting it lift him up off the ground, until it carried him to within jumping distance of a length of cable. After that, he dashed along the cable as quickly as he could, until he found some smaller cogs closer to the front of the huge insect. They were each only about eight feet long, so the Gill-man decided that he'd probably be able to stop them with his bare hands.

Quickly, the fish monster put both arms into the cogs, and was immediately thrown off-balance by just how much power was rushing through them. They were moving with such force, that it nearly tore his arms clean off. Fortunately, though, after only a fraction of a second, he regained his footing, and managed to bend the metal of the cogs just slightly, causing them to twist and slip out of place, unable to fit properly into one another. Soon, they were falling with a crash to the floor of the mechanical insect, causing a chain reaction, that led to two more falling, then six more after that. Eventually, the Gill-man lost track of just how many wheels had fallen within that colossal machine, but it still wasn't enough. Apparently, the thing had some kind of back-up system, or intentionally had more wheels than it needed, because in spite of all the damage that the Gill-man had done, the mechanical creature wasn't slowing down.

Though he wasn't sure whether it would do any good, he jumped from the place he'd been standing, further towards the front of the machine, hoping that he could find some kind of wire that controlled something sensitive, but for some reason, none of the cables that he snapped on the way to the front of the giant beast seemed to do any good, and it wasn't until he reached the head of the massive machine that he discovered why.

Right there, in the midst of all those cogs and cables, positioned right at the front end of the monstrous insect, there was a tiny device, no bigger than a soccer ball. It was hooked up to about seven miniature wires; so small, that the Gill-man was only able to see them when he got very close to the thing, and at that point, he started to realize the truly incredible genius that had gone into the creation of that deadly device.

Of course it had been built using some automated process, which didn't require living input, and with the endless materials available in asteroids, on lifeless moons, or uninhabitable planets; materials that only an alien life-form would have access to. That was how they could afford to make the machine so large and devastating, and it certainly was.

However, the one thing about that alien machine that truly stood out was that in spite of its tremendous size, only a very small part of it was actually necessary. It could have taken damage all across its entire frame, been dented in a thousand places, torn open a hundred times, and every last one of its cogs could have been destroyed, and even so, that tiny, ball-shaped machine and its little wires would have kept it moving and firing. There was something almost silly about the weapon's design, but when he stopped to think about it, the Gill-man realized that it was both brilliant, and consistent with what he'd already seen. Huge weapons with very small weak points seemed to be the regular design method of the alien machines they'd encountered so far, and it was a fairly solid design plan; particularly when the tiny weak point was very difficult to reach, and well-protected and hidden, as that one had been. Still, it was over for that machine.

In one swift motion, the Gill-man brought both hands together on the small, round machine from either side, and started squeezing. He could feel the complicated machinery buckling under his muscles, though its strong construction resisted even his titanic strength, at first. In the end, however, something important must have snapped loose in that control device, because he could feel the whole contraption around him starting to tremble and descend, as if tripping over its own legs. At last, the entire control center of the insect collapsed under the Gill-man's powerful arms, and only a few moments later, he was thrown into the air, as the whole huge monstrosity fell to the ground below it with a crash.

* * *

The Gill-man was aching all over when he finally emerged from the wreckage of the mechanical insect. In fact, he'd been tossed around so much during the crash, and was in so much pain, that he was sure that only his miraculous healing ability had kept him alive. Still, only one thing really mattered to him at the time, and that was the sight that he saw, in relief, when he climbed to the top of the nearest hill.

The village that the Gill-man had been living in over the course of the last few days; the place where he'd finally been accepted was still mainly in one piece. It seemed that a few smaller structures had collapsed while the alien device had been shaking the ground during its rampage and subsequent defeat, but nothing inside the village itself had been vaporized, and with luck, no one would wind up dying from the alien attack; at least not in that one area.

The problem, the Gill-man realized silently as he headed back to Sister Matsuda's tiny hospital, was what that attack signified. The aliens were back, and they wouldn't stop with just one attack against one South American country. In a way, the Gill-man was surprised that they'd made any kind of effort against Venezuela at all, but if nothing else, it proved that he needed to regroup with the others as soon as he could, and hope that they still had enough time to drive the invaders back again.

Soon, the Gill-man had made it back to the small hospital that Sister Matsuda ran, stepping through the door. Very few people were still in that hospital; primarily just sister Matsuda herself, and a couple of patients. However, in a way, that made it easier for the Gill-man to say his piece, merely hoping that his new friend would be able to hear him while she worked.

"I'll need to leave soon." the Gill-man said, though Matsuda gave no sign that she'd heard him, just continuing to wash the wound of the old woman lying on the bed in front of her, "I'm sure this is a sign of worse things to come. These aliens could destroy the world if I don't do something."

For a few moments, Matsuda continued to work in silence, and the Gill-man was almost on the verge of repeating himself, when she finished what she was doing, putting down the cloth she'd been using, and turned to look at him with a frown on her face, as if she was annoyed at being interrupted, even by someone like him. However, when she spoke to him, what she had to say was completely different.

"One day, this world will be destroyed; probably through fire." Matsuda expressed calmly, though still frowning, "Only the righteous will be saved after that, and restored to life. That's the will of divine providence, and I've accepted that. If the time of the world has come, it's not my job to push it back. I haven't been given the power to tamper with this world's fate."

"However," she continued, starting to grin just a little bit in amusement, "you have, and while most of us can't do much of anything to change the fate of the world, there are a few who can."

"So you don't think I'm opposed to your God anymore." the Gill-man observed, relieved by the simplicity and logic of his friend's thoughts, and by her reply to him a moment later.

"I never thought that, Gillman. You're just a person, like the rest of us, and so long as you do the best you can to do what's right in your own life situation, you're on the right path. I've seen businessmen, reporters, politicians and lawyers who all wanted to give up their jobs, so that they could do the right thing for once, but the truth was that they had the chance to do the right thing without giving their jobs up. They just had to be good businessmen, reporters, and so forth, instead of bad ones. Well, what are you?"

"I'm a monster." the Gill-man replied ruefully, but Matsuda didn't slow down for even a second when he said that, before she gave him her reply.

"Then be the best monster you can possibly be. You have huge talents that most people don't have, and you were given them for free. Now, you have the chance to do good things for others. I know you won't pass it up."

For a moment, the Gill-man almost found himself smiling, but at last, he knew that he had to say one more thing.

"For the longest time, I felt like I'd been betrayed; like someone was punishing me, by forcing me to be intelligent; forcing me to have the moral and ethical responsibilities that go with intelligence. I... I thought I was the only being in the world who could understand how that felt."

However, Matsuda was already shaking her head with a smile.

"We all feel that way sometimes, but really, responsibilities are a great gift. If we couldn't fulfill responsibilities, we wouldn't be entitled to rights either. After all, rights don't mean anything unless people respect them responsibly. Being an animal may be blissful in a sense, but being intelligent means having more control over your fate. There's a price to it, of course, but when you think about it that way, would you really give it up?"

For the first time in literally decades, the Gill-man wasn't sure how to reply to that question. However, he was closer to smiling than he'd ever been when he left that hospital about a minute later, dashed across the rough terrain of South America, and finally dove into the sea, opening his mind to the underwater world that surrounded him.

* * *

Adam Frankenstein swallowed hard as the tiny lights on the map moved outward, traveling to various countries; all over the world, and taking up positions there. One or two vanished, but there wasn't much time to worry about those. In addition to those tiny lights, there were also three very large ones, heading for three separate places One was traveling towards Washington D.C., one towards London, and one in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.

The aliens had obviously not meant their last attack to be serious, but they were apparently pulling out all the stops that time. Sure enough, it was a full-scale invasion, and they were using their largest forces to hit the three places in the world that were most likely to offer resistance. Things were looking very bad, alright, but when he turned to look at Dobson, her expression made him feel even more worried. Her eyes were open as wide as they'd ever been before, but there was no smile on her face. In fact, he thought that she looked just plain terrified, and he'd never seen her display that look before.

"What?" Adam asked, turning to Dobson with a feeling of dread in his heart, "Is this worse than it looks?"

"Much, much worse." Dobson replied, her expression growing more grave and determined with every second, "Those three power readings are classified on the thirtieth scale of energy measurement. That means, for example, that if that much energy was used to power a bomb, it could take out a whole continent."

For a moment, Adam just continued to watch Dobson, hoping for some sign that she was just kidding about that, but she certainly didn't look like she was. In the end, though, he knew that he had to say something.

"Worst case scenario, Doctor. How much damage could it do, at maximum?"

It seemed like Dobson hadn't been wanting to think along those lines, however, because it took her a few seconds to come up with an answer.

"Well, if you bury a bomb that powerful beneath the Earth's lava flow, then detonate it, it could take out the planet's core, upset the Earth's rotation, and destroy every living thing in the world. I'd never be able to pull off something like that without a hundred more breakthroughs in power signals and thermodynamics, but as I'm sure you've noticed, these aliens have very advanced technology. They might really be able to do it."

Adam was already starting to sweat. He could just picture three bombs, each with some kind of powerful, heat-proof drill attached to it, boring down into the ground at once from three of the places where human civilization had once been at its strongest. The image was so horrifying, that his mind immediately started racing; searching for some way to prevent it from coming true. Finally, he spoke up again, a plan already forming in his mind.

"What about the smaller power sources? Can they threaten the world?"

"No. They might be able to power a city-destroying weapon, but they're no danger to the planet itself."

That didn't make things much easier on Adam, but in the end, he knew what he had to do.

"In that case, we need to ignore them for now. We should be directing all our forces towards those three big power sources. Once we take them out, we can work on cleaning up the rest."

"Sounds good," Dobson replied with a mischievous grin, "but how did you plan on getting in contact with the other members of our team?"

For a moment, Adam started feeling a little less sure of himself. He'd hoped that Dobson might have some way to do that. However, it didn't take him long to see through her question. Dobson did have a means of getting in contact with the others. After all, she'd built a non-electric intercom and aircraft. Of course she'd have a means of contacting the others.

"I'm counting on you for that." Adam said at last, drawing a pleased smile from the mad scientist. That, apparently, was what she'd been waiting for; confirmation that Adam Frankenstein really did have faith in her. It was proof that as badly as things had started out between them, Adam and Stephanie Dobson had grown to almost be friends with one another. At the very least, each had gradually gotten comfortable with the idea of depending on the other, which was an impressive feat, given how neither one had really depended on too many other people in the past. It was a big step forward for them both.

Sure enough, Dobson didn't disappoint Adam, because in only a fraction of a second, an image had appeared on one of the ceiling screens of Dracula's room back in his mansion in London. For a moment, Dobson just waved one hand at the screen, as if inviting Adam to say his piece. Dracula had looked up from something that he was writing the moment that his room had appeared on the screen, and before Adam could say a word, the vampire spoke up.

"Adam? Do you have something to report?"

Adam just needed a moment to organize his thoughts before he replied to that question.

* * *

Thanks to the transmission device that Dobson had built, Dracula and Adam were able to plan out their next move in very short order, and thanks to her aircraft, their forces were divided up within minutes. However, the precise way in which they were divided surprised Adam a bit at first. The team traveling towards the Mediterranean consisted of Imhotep, Nancy and Kong. Dracula and Dobson would defend London as best they could, which meant that Adam and Barry were going to be doing their best to protect Washington on their own.

At first, Adam had wanted to object to that plan. After all, the last time he'd been in a fight with Barry, the young werewolf had transformed and turned on him, and he was still a little worried that it might happen again, though he wouldn't have admitted that to Barry himself.

The real problem was that even if he wasn't a hindrance, Adam didn't expect Barry to be much help either, and he had no idea what they were going to be facing, or just how dangerous it would be. Still, when Adam had the chance to think it over for a minute, he realized that there was really no other way to do things. Barry Hammerson was a member of their team, and although he'd done a remarkable job of staying in control recently, it was safer for everyone if he was with Adam. As for the risk that he might need to face the alien machine alone, it wasn't the only time he'd ever been in a rough situation like that. He was pretty confident that if he just did his best to keep from worrying, he'd come out of it in one piece.

Still, even after reasoning all of that away, there was one more thing that really worried Adam. He couldn't be sure what had happened to the Gill-man, or what he'd do when he resurfaced.

* * *

When Dobson's aircraft docked itself back in the hanger that she'd made out of part of Dracula's property, she wasn't too surprised to find the vampire waiting for her. He was still scowling, though under the circumstances, he had plenty of reason to, and she wasn't too surprised when he brought up the one thing that had been worrying her most, since she'd seen those massive power sources drawing closer to Earth.

"Now that you're back, there's one more thing that we need to discuss. You said that some kind of powerful alien machine is headed in our direction, but you failed to mention what it looks like."

"That's because I don't really know myself." Dobson replied with a shrug, "We'll find out together, I suppose."

"You're being optimistic." Dracula noted with disapproval, "How do we know that these machines will even be noticeable? What if they're disguised to look like people, or animals, or cars? What if they're too small to see?"

Admittedly, Dobson had been worrying about that as well, but she wasn't going to let it tear her up inside. After just a couple of seconds, she replied "We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled."

"This could mean the end of the world if we're not careful." Dracula reiterated angrily, "I'd hoped that you might find some means of..."

"Oh, had you?" Dobson finally exclaimed, losing her temper with the vampire at last, "You'd hoped that I would do everything, huh? I've never seen... Ugh!"

Dobson had wanted to say more to the vampire, because there was certainly more to say, but they were, after all, about to engage in the battle of their lives, and they couldn't afford any more division between them than was absolutely necessary. Still, at the moment, Dobson would have been willing to dissect the vampire lord right then and there. He seemed to have grasped that, though, because he didn't do any more complaining when the two stepped into a nearby elevator. In fact, it wasn't until they'd both emerged onto the mansion's first floor, and Dobson had put on her heavily-modified armor, that the vampire even said another word to her.

"In that case, you must have a backup plan, in case this doesn't work out."

"If I need more plans, I can make more plans." Dobson just replied testily, heading for the front door, "Right now, we need to get out there and start searching for the... for the..."

Dobson's jaw fell open when she walked through the mansion's front door, and it stayed open, because what she saw out there made their situation look both more and less hopeful than it had before.

It had been fairly rainy during the day, and the sun had just set. It was dark out, which made it hard to see things in the distance, but it was also a relatively clear night, so Dobson could just make out the London skyline, and was able to gauge the size of the various buildings in her head. The problem was what was beyond those buildings; approaching from the harbour.

It was big; very big; bigger than many of the buildings of the London skyline. In fact, as near as Dobson could determine, it was something like three hundred feet tall, with a massive light on top of it, shining out and illuminating the surrounding city, which had been cast into darkness for so long. On top of that, in spite of its tremendous size, the way it was moving made it look almost humanoid.

It was an absolutely monstrous machine, and there was no telling just what kinds of weapons it would have at its disposal, even if Dobson had tried to disregard its stupendous size and strength.

Since she'd started working with Dracula and the others, Dobson had gained a lot of new data on monsters, biology, nanotechnology, and a lot of other fields, and she'd never needed to regret her choice, but at that moment, facing a titan like that, she nearly did. It was a terrifying sight. Still, what really terrified Dobson, when she thought about it, was that she couldn't be in two places at once. She had Dracula to back her up against that thing, and Imhotep and the others would be doing their best to fight the one in the Mediterranean, but Doctor Stephanie Dobson was absolutely terrified of what was going to happen in Washington D.C. If the machine headed there was the same as the kind that had just showed up in the London Harbour, then Adam and Barry wouldn't have a prayer.


	19. Chapter 19: The Giants from Space

Chapter 19: The Giants from Space

* * *

Thanks to Dobson's machines, Nancy and the other members of her team had learned exactly where the aliens would be touching down, and they'd been transported to the city of Bizerte in Tunisia; bordering the Mediterranean Sea from the south. At first, both Dracula and Imhotep had suggested that the three of them could travel to that city by sandstorm. After all, as big as Nancy and Kong were, Imhotep's sandstorm form was bigger. However, Nancy had objected to that plan very strongly, and her objections had been taken seriously, when she'd explained that it wasn't just size that they had to worry about.

Whatever else he may have been, King Kong was still a wild animal, and in spite of his kinder and gentler tendencies, he was fully capable of flying into a rage and lashing out at people if he was exposed to something that scared him too much. It took a lot, Nancy had explained, to scare him, but being carried through the air by a colossal sandstorm might just be able to do it, and she didn't want to run the risk of endangering her friendship with the oversized gorilla. Because of that, Dobson's airship had been used to take them to Tunisia, and although people had started screaming, and running away the moment that they saw Nancy and King Kong, it could have been much worse if the mighty gorilla had gone on a rampage.

It was already nighttime when Dobson had dropped the three of them off, but it didn't take long for things to start happening. A shadow passed through the night sky, blotting out the moon and a good number of the stars, then several bright flames appeared in the sky above the water, gradually descending towards the planet, like rockets, lowering themselves to Earth, the lights growing larger and larger as they descended, until finally, they hit the water, disappearing completely. At last, a new light appeared, shining out from beneath the water's surface, and growing gradually closer to shore, causing huge waves to form on the beaches as it moved.

Of course, in the dark, it was difficult to determine just what kind of object had descended into the sea, or what it looked like, but there was one thing that Nancy was sure of; whatever that thing was, it was even bigger than her.

The waves were getting larger as the light descended into the water, and that was when Nancy realized just what was happening, and what a horrible problem they were facing. It was entirely possible that the machine was capable of burrowing into the Earth and destroying the planet from the inside, just as Dobson had said, and yet, they couldn't do anything to stop it unless they could maneuver just as well underwater as above.

"We need to stop that thing." Nancy said aloud, turning to face Imhotep, but it seemed that the mummy had already begun his attack against the alien machine, because he was raising his hands towards the water, and opening his mouth wide, like some grotesque caricature of a human face. Sure enough, the waves did seem to be moving in response to his silent commands, sliding back away from the southern shores of the enormous sea, and rising upward, as if they'd become a part of his body. In only a moment, half of the sea seemed to rise into the air, taking the source of the light with it, and soon, it was all colliding with the beaches of Bizerte. Nancy had a hard time keeping her footing as all that fast-moving water pulled at her legs, but when the waves finally receded into the sea, she got her first really good look at the invader, and it certainly was an impressive sight.

The thing was easily six times Nancy's height, and several times larger and heavier. Furthermore, it was designed like a very strong bodybuilder, and the bright, shining light was coming out of a visor in the center of its face. It was humanoid, in spite of its colossal size, and after only a second of looking stunned and disoriented, the alien machine started getting to its feet, as if it was about to turn back to the water again. Nancy had just been stunned by the sheer size of it at first, but when she saw that Imhotep's attack had thrown it off-balance, she knew that she had to make a move quickly.

Imhotep seemed to be preparing another attack of his own, but Nancy had an opportunity to buy him some time, so she took it, rushing forward and slamming into the metal giant as hard as she could. He didn't look as if he'd taken any damage from her attack, but she'd thrown him further off-balance, knocking him to the ground with a crash. Kong seemed to take that as his cue as well, just a moment later.

Soon, the mighty gorilla came down on the enormous robot, landing on its chest and slamming both arms into its metal surface. For a moment, the huge machine shuddered under the ape's assault, and its frame was actually dented by it. However, it was already recovering, whipping its massive fists around. Fortunately, that was when Imhotep unleashed his next curse on the invader from space.

The sky was already growing dark, and thunder was rumbling in the distance, as Imhotep's curse took effect. For a moment, the three-hundred-foot robot looked surprised when blazing balls of hail began to fall from the sky, but only for a moment.

Unfortunately, the invader from space reacted to the attack quickly, looking up into the rain of enormous hailstones, which had managed to single handedly light up the ground and the water alike as they fell. However, the light in the invader's visor was shining brightly, and only a moment later, a burst of brilliant, blazing energy shot out of it, tearing through the sky over the whole city of Bizerte, and reducing the oncoming hailstones to vapor.

Nancy had never seen anything like it. Imhotep's powers were truly fearsome, and yet, the machine from space was countering every move that they made. She wasn't even sure if she could be any help in such a large-scale battle anymore. Still, she had to do something.

Quickly straightening up again, and checking to make sure that Kong was still watching her, Nancy charged towards the alien war machine while it was still firing at the hailstones, hoping to catch it off-guard, and Kong followed her lead only a moment later, but just then, it did something that she never could have predicted.

In a flash, the robot's body changed shape, apparently on its own; its legs opening up like huge doors, and revealing even more weapons inside. Kong reacted to the sight of those gun barrels quickly, leaping to one side, away from the weapons, but Nancy wasn't as fast as him, and one beam zipped too close to her, burning her all across the left side of her shoulder and neck. Nancy gasped in pain for a moment, though she didn't freeze up. After all, she was an army vet, and she'd been in more than one life-threatening battle before. She knew what it meant to fight for her life against something with the power to destroy her, but she couldn't figure out how she was going to attack something that big, with so many hidden weapons.

For a moment, Nancy found that she was having a hard time concentrating on the battle, and hoped silently that the other teams weren't facing such well-armed and powerful enemies themselves.

* * *

The moment that Dracula looked out through the doorway, and saw what was headed in the direction of London, he changed his form, as if on instinct. Soon, a large, dark shape rushed past Dobson and out the door, accompanied by the sound of leathery wings, but she didn't have time to worry about what the vampire was doing. Dobson had known that the enemy advancing towards them was going to be powerful, and she'd suspected that it wouldn't be hard to spot, but she'd never expected something quite that large, and having realized what she was facing, the brilliant scientist knew that it would have been foolish to fight it directly, even with her armor on.

Quickly, Doctor Dobson activated the teleportation device in her armor, and the bright blue fires of teleportation surrounded her for just a moment, depositing her back in the place that she knew she needed to be; the cockpit of her aircraft. In only a few seconds, she'd unlocked the controls, and the ship lifted off, rising into the air, and zipping towards the tremendous machine that was approaching London from the Harbour.

As Dobson got closer and closer to the alien war machine, she pushed a button to lock the aircraft into its current course, and started removing parts from the large slots embedded in the walls of the cockpit. It was a very fast and powerful aircraft by itself, of course, but the real advantage to its design was the same as her armor's. Its components were designed to be easy to remove, re-attach and reprogram at a moment's notice. At last, Dobson had connected eight components together and rewired their power supplies, sliding them into an empty slot in the front of the cockpit, and listening in satisfaction as the parts slid into place. Then, she returned to her chair and turned off the autopilot, pushing a small, purple, unmarked button on one side with a smile. She was very convinced that she had the chance to take out the robot in one shot, but if she missed that chance, she might never get another one.

Dobson watched in delight as the tiny slots on the front of her machine opened, and out came eight gun nozzles, already charging with disruptive energy. It was a weapon design that she'd only mastered recently, thanks to the alien that had attacked her during the initial invasion, and it was a type of attack that could destroy nearly anything physical. However, it seemed that the alien machine had much better reflexes than she'd given it credit for.

In a fraction of a second, the huge, metal creature had looked up, and in the bright light that Dobson's machine was emanating, she could see its tremendous head much more clearly. Its shape wasn't entirely different from the shape of a human head, but it didn't have ears, a nose, a mouth, or any hair. All it had was a huge visor, with a single brilliant light in the center, and when Dobson began to charge her weapons, she saw, in dismay, that that light was growing brighter and brighter.

However, Dobson knew that there was no turning back, and at last, she pressed a yellow switch on the right side of her chair, and braced herself, as the guns on the front of her ship all fired huge, blinding beams towards the alien as one.

* * *

Dracula had been flying towards the invading alien machine as quickly as he could, but Dobson's aircraft was much faster than him, even at his flying speed, and it was probably just as well, he thought. He'd been hoping to find some kind of weakness in the alien machine; some hidden Achilles' heel to attack, but Dobson was already attacking head-on, which, if nothing else, would give him the chance to see how the monstrous weapon fought.

Soon, powerful beams were emerging from the front of Dobson's ship, blazing towards the creature, and the metal giant, in response, had fired a beam of its own from its visor. For a few moments, the two beams tore through each other, their energy mixing and dispersing as it entered the same area. Dracula didn't know as much about the dynamics of ionized energy as he did about manipulating people, but he could already tell that those two energy weapons were having a bad effect on each other. The light just seemed to be growing brighter and brighter in that one spot where the blasts met. It almost looked as if the destructive beams were struggling to overcome one another, but that was when the alien machine made another move.

In less than a second, three more weapons had emerged from within the metal giant's chest and arms, firing upward at the place where Dobson's aircraft still hovered in mid-air, and that was when the strength of the metal being's design became obvious. It wasn't just that it could fire a powerful weapon; it could also do it from several different directions at once; perhaps even produce weapons from nearly every part of its body, and Dracula had seen those alien weapons during his own fight with an eight-foot, alien robot when the fake invasion had been underway. He knew that they could deal heavy damage to almost any physical substance; most likely including himself if he wasn't careful. In fact, every new thing that Dracula learned about the alien machine seemed to reveal more and more of its strength, and far too few weaknesses.

Unfortunately, Dobson's ship had been hit by one of the beams a moment later. The blast had torn through a spinning blade along one side of the craft, causing it to start wobbling around in the air and losing its balance. She seemed to be doing her best to compensate for the lost blade, but there was no denying the truth. By herself, Dobson just didn't have the firepower to compete with an alien war machine, aircraft or no aircraft. For some reason, however, Dracula felt something just then; something that he hadn't felt in a very long time.

Since Lord Dracula had first begun gathering monsters and villains from all over the world, he'd never really thought of anything but his own continued survival, and preserving his high position on that planet. The very idea of ever risking his own life for someone else simply hadn't entered into his head, and yet, in that moment, he saw that Dobson was on the verge of dying. If the alien got even one more chance to fire its weapons, it might well be all over for her, and for some strange reason, that bothered Dracula in a way that it never had before.

Lord Dracula had, in the past several years alone, mastered the use of many powers that he'd never let anyone find out about, and had only rarely even used himself, in private. Most of the time, he tried to avoid ever using those powers, because after all, the only thing he really cared about was maintaining his power base, and that would be easier if others underestimated him. Having an unexpected trump card or two to spring on enemies was always useful, and yet, in that moment, when he saw Dobson's aircraft being shot out of the sky, for just a fraction of a second, Dracula decided to use one of the powers that he'd never revealed to anyone.

Quickly changing back into his human form in mid-air, Dracula clapped both hands together as he floated high above the city, and squeezed them tightly, feeling the heat building up between his palms. At last, an aura had formed around his hands; an aura of the old magic that he'd once mastered so completely; the branch of sorcery that had perhaps been his greatest talent, while he'd been alive; the conjuring of fire.

As a vampire, some primal fear did surface in Lord Dracula's heart when he looked down at his hands, to find that they looked as if they were ablaze. However, he knew that he had nothing to fear anymore. After all, that was the primary reason why Dracula had always prevailed, every last time that he and another vampire had been in conflict with one another. His skills in magic meant that the vampire's weakness to fire had always had far less of an effect on him, and on top of that, he had the power to summon and shape flames around himself. It was a power that he'd used more than once to escape from a pursuer, or to fool them into thinking that they'd succeeded in killing him. Still, those powers had grown even further in recent years, until at last, Lord Dracula knew that he had nothing to fear from flames. In fact, if he shaped them just right, they only added to his strength.

Forcing his will to overcome his primal fear, Dracula separated his hands again; each still surrounded by flames, and began to shape the fire to his will. Swiftly, the flames twirled around behind him, covering his legs and feet, until they were just the right shape. Then, he willed them to flare up all at once, and soon, he was being propelled forward through the air with incredible speed, the fire surrounding him once again as he moved. Of course, that was the biggest reason why Dracula hadn't wanted to get involved when Barry Hammerson had transformed. He knew that it would have meant revealing his full powers to his teammates, and the thought of really trusting anyone; even another monster, had always filled Lord Dracula with worry.

Still, the vampire sped through the sky in that moment, towards the place where Dobson was still being fired on, and with a wave of his hand, he released several bursts of flame into the air around the alien machine's head, hoping that it would distract their mutual enemy for a moment, while he took care of Dobson.

Fortunately, the alien did stop firing for a while, giving Dracula the opportunity that he needed to propel himself downward, and seize one of the support bars of the aircraft, tearing open the main door and slipping inside with all the speed he could muster. Soon, he'd found the storage area right below the cockpit, and started forcing his way up through it; the metal softening under his touch, until it was weak enough to be pulled apart. In literally moments, Dracula burst into the cockpit, and there was Dobson, still struggling to make the machine work for just a few seconds longer, as if doing so would mean victory for them. It was a sad state of affairs, the vampire realized, but it looked as if the aliens had defeated Dobson completely. The best that he could do, at the moment, was rescue her from that collapsing ship, and hope that the two of them would be able to come up with another plan before it was too late. Still, for the time being, he decided to talk to her about it first.

"We should get out of here before this whole place collapses." Dracula said aloud, slowing down a bit, so that he could talk with Dobson directly again. She looked surprised that he was there, but adapted to it well, though she didn't seem to agree with his assessment.

"Abandon the ship? No way! If I have to retreat, I'll retreat, but I'm not leaving my baby to get blown up by that freak show!"

Soon, Dobson had yanked two separate components out of the side wall of the cockpit, then slid them into two holes in the floor, grinning as she pushed a large button on the side of the ship. That was when Dracula saw something he'd never expected to see.

Those components that Dobson had slid into the holes were, it seemed, some kind of collapsed glider wings of some sort, because they unfolded the moment that they'd slid into position, and Dracula could feel the aircraft shifting under him as it began to depend more on the winds to support it. Then, another hole opened up in the very front of the cockpit, looking just like the ones that Dobson had been sliding machine components into. However, the alien's visor was starting to shine again, and Dracula knew what that meant. He'd never seen it do that, unless it was about to fire. For a moment, he wrestled with the puzzle in his mind, of whether it would be better to stay with Dobson; to trust her, or whether he should just pick her up and rescue her against her will. However, that was when Dobson turned to face the vampire, and said just one word.

"Green."

When Dobson said that, it had caused a number of thoughts to start rushing through Dracula's head. He could tell that she was trying to give him some kind of instruction, which burned him up inside more than a little bit. After all, he was supposed to be their leader, for the time being, and didn't feel like he should be taking orders. Still, he knew what Dobson had meant by that remark. There was a green device attached to one of the walls, and she was asking him to put it in the hole in front of the aircraft, if only because she knew that only he was fast enough to do it in time. He still felt upset by the very thought of taking orders from her, but he also recognized the rarity of the trust that she was showing him, so for the moment, although it went against his better judgment, Lord Dracula decided to trust someone just that once, though he certainly had no plans to make a habit of it.

In a flash, the green machine had been installed in the front of the aircraft, and Dracula watched it slide into position, connecting to the front of the flying machine's frame, until it stuck out of the front of the ship like an antennae, and the point at the end of it began to glow. However, before even another second had passed, the giant robot fired, and the light nearly blinded Dracula from where he was, as the sound of disruptive energy tore through the air all around the ship, sending a chill of mortal terror through the vampire lord's heart...

* * *

Nancy was absolutely terrified of the alien giant by that point. It wasn't just that it was huge and powerful; it was all of that, but it actually seemed to be adapting to their attacks, and responding with just enough power to drive them back, as if it were actually learning from its experiences, and developing new tactics as it went along, growing more and more savvy with every second that the battle progressed. Nancy couldn't determine whether the machine was really doing that, or whether it just seemed that way because she was growing tired, but if there was even a chance that it was, then she needed to make a move quickly; stop the battle somehow, before the titan from space could overwhelm them.

Still, she wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing that. She knew that Kong would follow her lead, but the alien seemed to be defending itself very effectively, and even anticipating her moves, to say nothing of being a great deal larger than her, which was an unusual experience for Colonel Nancy Archer. It certainly meant that she'd need to get creative with her next battle plan.

Fortunately, it seemed that everyone in that area of the city had already evacuated, because there wasn't anyone in the nearest house when Nancy tore it out of the ground with both arms, and threw it in the direction of her metal enemy, then charged right at him again, as he swatted it out of the air, just managing to get in close enough to make one move.

In a flash, Nancy had seized another empty building out of the ground; a large one that time, and kicked it along the ground towards where the metal giant was approaching, then leapt on top of it like a footstool, and into the air, towards the invader's chest. It was a huge risk for Nancy, because if it fired at her, she wouldn't be able to dodge, but it was the only plan she could think of that had even half a chance of succeeding.

At the last second, the metal giant tried to move out of the way, but it was too late for that. Nancy managed to grab onto one of his arms, and just as she'd hoped, Kong had followed behind her, seizing the creature's other arm with a ferocious roar, and hanging from it by one hand, smashed the giant's left arm with the other, putting a large dent in its armor, and throwing it off-balance. With the two of them hanging onto it like that, that moment of weakness was all that was needed to topple the metal giant over into the water again, and that was when Imhotep made his move.

The sand and water into which the giant had fallen started rising up a moment later, and wrapping itself around the gigantic figure. It probably wouldn't stop him, Nancy thought, but it might slow him down, while they made one final attack. Soon, the huge hailstones had started raining down again; one of Imhotep's many curses, and Nancy started to feel hope again, that they might actually have a chance for victory.

However, when Nancy looked up at the head of the invader, she realized that that hope might have been a little premature. Its visor was starting to shine again, as it looked up at the hailstones, and Nancy knew what that meant. At any second, it was just going to blast the hail out of the air, wrench itself loose from the surrounding elements, and try to kill them again. Quickly, she struggled to get some footing back, and reach the giant's head before it could do that, but it seemed that Kong had realized the nature of the problem too, and as a gorilla, he was a much faster climber. In seconds, he'd grabbed onto the giant's damaged left arm and started scaling it, putting even more dents into the arm as he went, until he reached the creature's neck, and swung one long, powerful arm around, smacking the metal giant's head to one side, so that for a moment, its gaze was diverted away from the oncoming hail. It didn't take long after that, before the mummy's attack began.

Imhotep looked as if the metal giant's resistance had really irritated him, because he was scowling furiously as hailstones bigger than soccer balls descended on the alien with tremendous speed. Kong seemed to have realized that he and Nancy were in danger as well, because he'd leapt into the water underneath the giant, and Nancy had to do her best to dodge the oncoming hail, which came crashing to the ground like a meteor shower, but their enemy was lying down in the water, and he was much bigger than they were. Even if he'd been standing up, he might have had a hard time dodging that rain of ice and flames. While lying down, it was utterly impossible.

The hailstones sounded like the crashing of thunder as they collided with the head and chest of the invading, alien machine, putting clean holes in its body and revealing some type of blue, glowing substance that had been behind the metal armor of the giant. With Kong and Nancy otherwise occupied, it's arms were free again, and it seemed to be trying to get back to its feet, but that only caused the hailstones that hit it to tear through even more of its body, starting fires inside the vast creature as it struggled to recover from the massive damage that had been done to it. However, that was when something else happened; something that Nancy had never expected; the entire top half of the huge machine's body seemed to shoot up into the air, separating from its arms, and it had suddenly taken a completely new shape; its arms and legs splitting and dividing into several smaller humanoid machines.

Nancy was stunned by just what she was seeing; barely able to believe it. It seemed like the titanic war machine was actually several machines, connected to one another, and able to disconnect from one another when they were too badly-damaged to function as a group. In some way, that might make the battle simpler, while in others, it would almost definitely complicate things even further.

Imhotep seemed to have decided that continuing his attack would be the best move, even though the machine from space had soon separated its arms into six smaller machines, each one humanoid, and a little bigger than Nancy, as well as its head and chest, which were still hovering in mid-air. The hailstones were doing some damage to them when they hit, but in smaller forms like those, they seemed to be getting hit a bit less often. However, those were the kinds of enemies that Nancy had no problem fighting against unaided.

In only a moment, Colonel Archer dove in among the smaller machines and started smashing them left and right with her arms, legs and palms. Their metal armor still offered them some protection against her attacks, but at that size, it wasn't nearly enough. They certainly seemed to be feeling her blows, just as much as if they'd been fifty-five foot human beings, and for some reason, their energy beams didn't seem as powerful as before. The smaller machines didn't have visors, but each had a gun nozzle of some type in its chest, and they were firing those for all they were worth. However, one of them grazed past Nancy's shoulder, and barely even made her feel warm. It was almost as if the power had just gone out of those weapons, and without the force of massive energy behind them, they just weren't strong enough to hurt her anymore. It was a reassuring thought, but at the same time, it brought another, more worrying thought to the mind of the giantess. After all, if the energy of the alien machines wasn't making its way into their weapons anymore, where had it gone? Was it just that it had been divided up among them, or was... was...

Immediately, Nancy looked up at the head and chest of the alien machine, which was continuing to float in mid-air above them, and most likely expending a great deal of power while it floated there, and that was when she remembered what was really terrifying about the extraterrestrial giant. It wasn't its size, or its weapons, or anything like that, though all those things had certainly been very distracting. What made the alien giant really dangerous was its vast power source. That was the part of it that had to be demolished at all cost.

"Imhotep!" Nancy exclaimed, quickly flipping another of the smaller robots over one shoulder, "Never mind these little guys! Keep going for the head!"

When Nancy said that, Imhotep looked slightly offended, but he also responded quickly, opening his mouth wide. In seconds, a vast swarm of gnats shot out from within his throat, and surrounded the head and torso of the original robot, as if to prevent it from seeing what the mummy was planning next. Then the waters underneath it rose up again, and began pulling it downward, towards the sea below. For several seconds, the torso of the enemy was pulled downward by Imhotep's power, though short of summoning more hail, he seemed unsure as to how he was going to damage it. It was fortunate that he had allies in that fight.

Nancy had been taught unarmed combat by several experts in the US military, and it was proving to be a very useful skill after all, though she'd been a little doubtful of that when they'd first started training her. Kicks, punches and throwing techniques were finally being used against someone other than Kong, and as it turned out, Nancy was a much better fighter than she'd ever realized. Alien machines were crashing to the ground left and right, as Imhotep forced the main body back to sea level. Nancy was delighted to discover that, at least for the time being, she could keep every last one of those smaller war machines busy fighting her, and give the others the chance to fight the real threat. On top of that, she was actually making some headway against her enemies. She was starting to ache somewhat from their attacks, but they looked like they were in even worse condition, and getting more damaged with every moment. In fact, just a few more seconds into the fight, she decided to try finishing one of them off.

All six had moved away for a moment, then advanced at the same time, from all different directions, and that was when Nancy made her move, diving down and sweeping her foot all the way around in a huge roundhouse kick. Four of the enemy were knocked off-balance by that kick, and the other two were driven back, so that she had her chance. Quickly, she seized one of her enemies by the arms, braced her foot against its chest, and pulled with all her might.

All at once, Nancy realized in delight and amazement, all three of the monsters on that battlefield had risen to their greatest potential. Imhotep didn't look resentful of Nancy anymore, Kong had emerged from the water with a roar, and slammed both fists into the huge, robotic torso, driving them clear through the metal armor at last, and as for Nancy, the chest of one of the smaller robots was caving inward under her right boot, and its arms had come off in her hands, sending bright blue sparks flying in all directions. It had been a long time since Colonel Archer had done anything like that, and she felt, for the first time in years, like she was even bigger, and the rest of the world was even smaller; like she could have reached up and braced her arms against the sky, and it made her feel alive.


	20. Chapter 20: King of the Monsters

Chapter 20: King of the Monsters

* * *

Dracula started to regret placing his trust in Dobson the moment that the alien beam struck her ship, pouring over the green device she'd just had him attach to it, and knocking the the whole ship backwards. Soon, they were careening through the sky, and although Dracula didn't scream, his eyes were open as wide as they'd ever been. Dobson's were as well, though for some reason, she was still smiling too. In fact, she almost looked as if she'd planned it all out that way, even up to the very moment when the ship came crashing to the ground, and finally skidded to a halt at the end of a massive trench that it carved out of the dirt on the way down.

Almost as soon as the machine came to a stop on the ground, the doors opened, and Dracula emerged, carrying Dobson back outside, and putting her on the ground near the pile of dirt that had accumulated around the aircraft. He wasn't really expecting any thanks for that, but he also wasn't expecting to hear the words that did come out of Dobson's mouth, almost the very moment that she was on solid ground again.

"Looks salvageable."

"You failed," Dracula replied, "and that thing may still find a means of destroying the Earth. How exactly is anything about this situation salvageable?"

"No! No!" Dobson exclaimed, not showing even the slightest hint of discouragement over the vampire's words, "This wasn't a failure. My machine performed much better than I expected it to. I just didn't expect the enemy to be so big. Radar's one of the few technologies I haven't been able to replicate with a heat-based power source. I'm sure if I had more time, I could do even better, though."

"You don't have more time." Dracula observed, however, and as pessimistic as the remark was, it was pretty well justified, because a beam of bright light was advancing towards them from the London skyline. It seemed as if the alien machine had realized they weren't destroyed just yet, and was hoping to finish them off, which meant that they had almost no time on their hands at all. With the huge steps that thing could take, it would be on top of them in literally seconds, and within firing range even sooner. He didn't like having to go to those lengths, or risk so much in any gamble for his own survival, but, Dracula decided, that was the lot he'd been given. The only choice that he had left was to go all-out against the machine, and hope that Dobson could come up with a more effective weapon in a short time, just in case the alien proved too strong for him.

"If you can create some kind of weapon or defense against this thing in the next minute and thirty seconds, you had better do it," Dracula said at last, "but I don't think I can buy you any more time than that."

Then, in just a moment, Dracula had summoned his flames again, and was shooting through the air, preparing to unleash his full powers against the monster, and hoping that they would be enough, leaving Dobson where she was, to observe his more advanced powers in awe.

The alien machine had already reached the buildings near the edge of London by the time Dracula caught up to it, and it looked as absolutely ferocious as a creature without a face could, when the vampire made his move. Thick clouds had been gathering in the sky ever since he'd taken off from the ground, and by the time he reached the alien giant, thunder and lightning were flashing all around the two with deafening noise. More than one lightning bolt hit the three-hundred-foot monster, but it didn't seem to be doing nearly enough damage, so the vampire lord moved in as close as he could, slugging the monstrous creature with his full strength, and forcing a blast of intense heat to travel through the robot at the same time. The giant did seem to have felt his attack, and its head was turned around partway by the impact of the blow, but it still looked like it would take a lot more to knock it down, and in a way, Dracula was pleased by that.

Even after becoming a vampire, and learning caution to escape from his enemies and slay his victims, Lord Dracula had always been a warrior at heart, and he hated to have his efforts wasted. In the last couple of centuries, he'd put a lot of effort into improving and amplifying his own powers; refining them as best he could, until they were as powerful as they could be, and at last, he was facing an enemy who justified every second that he'd spent accumulating that power; every moment spent in training and practice with his abilities. Even he had once worried that it would turn out to be mere paranoia, and that he'd never meet an enemy strong enough to challenge the powers that he'd been gathering, but that metal giant was just the kind of enemy he'd been preparing for. His actions and precautions hadn't been wasted at all.

Quickly, continuing to hold himself up in the air by his power, Dracula slammed his fists repeatedly against the alien machine's head and chest, charging each blow with as much sorcerous heat as he possibly could, and when, a moment later, the creature tried to swat him out of the air, it was in for a big surprise.

Just before the titan's hand was about to make contact with Dracula, his form changed again, and a smaller, black-winged creature flapped its way right through the giant's fingers, surrounded by thick mists. It was the pivotal weakness of such a large enemy; it seemed to have a harder time pinning down a much smaller foe.

However, as Dracula was changing back into his human form, and preparing another blow, the alien creation did something that proved, once and for all, that a real intelligence had been guiding it. It executed a carefully-planned assault against him, firing a beam from its visor. For a moment, Dracula directed his flames towards the alien energy blast, and succeeded in deflecting it off to one side, but then he felt a sharp, searing pain travel through the right side of his body.

For just a moment, the vampire's gaze zipped off to the side, and there he saw that nearly half of his torso was being eroded away by the beam weapon that had just struck him. He also saw the place that the blast had come from; a gun nozzle that had been hidden in the robot's left hip until just recently. It seemed, Dracula realized in dismay, that he wasn't the only one with expertise at hiding his powers, and while he was distracted for a moment, the creature's hand came down on his back again, smashing him downward, towards the ground.

Lord Dracula hit the Earth with a resounding crash, breaking open the asphalt underneath him, as if it were made from graham crackers. He'd never been so close to feeling truly exhausted in his life. He'd already expended a lot of his magic, and had fought the metal giant to almost a standstill, but as great as his powers and skills had become over the years, they just weren't great enough to overwhelm his foe completely. For the moment, he was focusing his power to regenerate the damaged sections of his body, but he had a strong feeling that the alien giant wouldn't just be sitting around in the meantime. Sure enough, a moment later, it had lifted up one huge foot, and moved it until it was right over the place where the vampire was laying in the dirt.

Dracula was sure that it was over; that he was finally about to die for the last time, and that everything he'd been attempting to do would amount to nothing in the end. For once, it seemed as though the grim shadow of final defeat was passing right over the vampire lord, but just then, he heard a deafening noise, from off in the distance; out across the water. It was a very familiar and very haunting sound, because there was only one creature in the world that was capable of making it. It echoed across the sea, across the city, and into the countryside; so much louder than the sounds made by any other creature, and because of its sheer volume, it was difficult to describe. It had elements of the roar of a ferocious lion, the call of a massive, predatory bird, and the hiss of an enormous serpent, all combined into one, and it echoed like a thunderclap. Even the alien giant seemed to shudder at that sound, turning back to look towards the ocean again, because if he'd done any research on planet Earth at all, he must have known just what creature that sound came from.

Soon, enormous waves began to sweep into the city, and Dracula found himself surrounded by flowing water, and unable to move; being carried away from the metal giant by the waves. The giant turned back towards shore again; clearly with the intention of defending itself. However, both of them were able to see what was happening in the London Harbour. Enormous, sharp fins were rising up out of the waves, cutting through the surface of the water like tremendous knives, and the water level was rising with the sheer momentum of the gigantic beast that those dorsal fins belonged to. Tiny boats were swept to every side by the rushing waves as that creature continued to rise, and although it had fins, it was much too big to be any kind of fish, or even a whale.

Thick, charcoal-gray scales rose up out of the water, shimmering dimly as they reflected the moonlight above, and the creature stood upright. It had two legs and two arms, with sharp claws, jagged, bone-colored fins on its back, massive, fang-like teeth, and a blood-red stare, which seemed to almost shine out from its eyes like the inside of a fusion reactor. In every respect, it was like a lizard, or a huge dinosaur walking upright, and when Dracula saw it, he knew that once again, the people of Earth had a chance to survive.

One more time, the huge monster in the harbour roared, standing eighty meters; over two hundred and fifty feet high, and facing the alien giant on an almost even footing. Godzilla had come to London.

* * *

When Nancy had destroyed the first of the robots, she'd wound up with two large, metal arms in her hands, and not one to turn down an advantage in battle, she'd immediately started using them as clubs, lashing out against the other robots, and shattering more than one with the armored limbs of one of their own. Kong was already ripping components out of the main body of the robot with ferocious efficiency, and soon, Nancy only had three more enemies of her own to deal with. However, there was something wrong. She'd been feeling a little distracted over the course of the last few minutes, and she wasn't really sure why. She'd heard some kind of background noise going on under the commotion of the battle, but at first, she'd been convinced that it was just a result of the fighting; some sound of destruction that they'd unknowingly caused during their conflict, and in that moment of distraction, one of the robots got the drop on Nancy, slugging her in the chin, and knocking her over.

Soon, Nancy Archer was surrounded by collapsing wood and metal. She could feel that she'd fallen back onto another of the buildings behind her, because the roof was already caving in under her back. Soon, the walls had started crumbling from the shock, then the whole top floor gave way, dropping Nancy even further down, until at last, she'd crashed through to the bottom floor of the building, although only her head and upper body had really wound up inside the building's remains. However, just then, as Nancy glanced off to one side, she saw something that sent a chill of mortal terror all the way through her.

Right there, in one corner of the half-crushed building; in probably the only section with no crushed walls or debris, there was someone standing bolt upright against the wall, and looking understandably stunned. It was a little boy, no more than eight or ten, from what Nancy could tell, and at the rate that the building was continuing to crumble, he was obviously still in a huge amount of danger.

Without even taking a moment to think it over, Nancy seized the small boy in one hand, and leapt back to her feet, raising one leg just in time to block the most recent attack of one of her three remaining enemies. Still, at the time, she could tell that she was at a bit of a disadvantage already, in spite of the fact that she'd been doing very well a moment before. She really had two major problems; the fact that she'd dropped the metal arms that she'd been using as clubs, and the fact that she was scared to even punch with her left hand, for fear of crushing the poor boy she'd just rescued. It meant having to fight the last three enemies one-handed, unless she could find someplace safe to put the little boy in the meantime. Furthermore, the three remaining fighting machines were advancing towards her all at once, clearly trying to surround her. At the moment, she realized, her best means of defending herself were her legs.

Quickly, as the robots began advancing all at once, Nancy jumped back, slamming into the robot behind her, and then kicked out with both legs, her feet crashing clear through the head of the metal enemy across from her. Unfortunately, there was still one robot left, and Nancy was off-balance, and falling towards the ground again. On top of all that, the nozzle in the invader's chest was starting to shine brightly, clearly about to fire its weapons again, and although Nancy knew that she could withstand the robot's beams herself, she suspected that the little boy would be much more vulnerable to the alien weapons. She only had a moment to think up a means of defending the boy, and her mind was racing, but at last, right before the alien fired, she did the natural thing, curling up over the little boy and wrapping her arms around him; hoping that she'd be able to shield him just enough to spare his life. Then, in moments, the ionized energy was flooding over Nancy's back and sides.

* * *

Even Lord Dracula couldn't help but stare in awe at the titanic figure of Gojira; which the English-speaking world called Godzilla. On top of being one of the largest living things on planet Earth, Godzilla was a true monster, with several powers and abilities that a mere tremendous person wouldn't have had. His scaly armor and enormous strength were only the tip of the iceberg, however, and even among Japan's impressive monster population, he was well-known for winning fights; even against better-armed opponents. If he was getting involved, Dracula knew, there was a good chance that the invader from space was done for.

Godzilla made the first move, rushing forward through the water, as the invader began charging its beams, but although the huge monster moved fast, the metal giant was able to get a shot off first, firing right into Godzilla's scaly chest. It was the one weakness that Japan's strongest warrior had; he was an easy target to hit.

The sheer force of the alien beam had knocked the Japanese monster back into the water, and seemed to have succeeded in stunning him for a moment. However, by that point, the water had receded a little and waves were just starting to form again. It gave Lord Dracula the chance that he needed to get back to his feet and start flying again, though he was careful to take his bat shape at the time, to avoid causing a distraction to either of the huge combatants.

It certainly looked like Godzilla was down, Dracula thought as he landed on top of a nearby building to continue watching the battle, except for one thing. For a moment, when he'd been hit by the alien beam weapon, it had looked as if something around the monster's body had glowed for just a second, like some kind of radioactive pulse, flaring up to defend himself from the weapons of his enemy. Furthermore, the vampire could tell from where he was, that there wasn't a single real wound on the Japanese monster's body. There was no way that he was beaten; not yet.

As expected, Godzilla was back on his feet a moment later, looking perhaps a bit groggy, but still ready to continue the battle, charging towards the alien being. It fired at him with the beam weapon in its visor again, but that time, Godzilla moved its head and shoulders to one side, just managing the dodge the blast. A moment later, the alien fired another blast at him, but that time, he reacted to it even more impressively, holding both arms out in front of him, his radioactive aura flaring up. Soon, the blast had hit him, almost point blank, and yet, when all was said and done, it had been cleanly deflected by the pulse ability that Godzilla had been using, striking the waters of the ocean off to one side a moment later. In just another second, before the alien could get off another shot, Godzilla had collided with him, and the two had crashed through several of the buildings bordering the London Harbour, crushing them as they went. It looked as if the alien had momentarily been stunned by Godzilla's attack, and that was when the king of the monsters went in for the kill, swinging around, and lashing out with his tremendous tail.

The moment that Godzilla's tail hit the alien machine, its whole body was in two pieces, almost as though it had been severed cleanly in two at the waist, and that sent a shock of true hope and amazement through Dracula, as he started to consider that maybe, the king of the monsters had succeeded where even his power had failed. However, he soon realized that the battle wasn't over yet. In fact, the real fight hadn't even begun, because there were more machines hidden inside the alien's torso. Its upper torso immediately began to rise into the air, propelled by jets of flame, emerging from the place where it had once connected to its legs, and its lower half; from the waist down, was changing shape; a tremendous gun nozzle forming out of its waste line.

Godzilla seemed to recognize the threat, and held up his arms again, to protect himself, but then, both halves of the alien fired at once, and the blast was far more powerful than it had been before, knocking the Tokyo champion clear off his feet again and into the water. However, what really worried Dracula was what he saw when the water vapor that had been kicked up into the air by Godzilla's impact. A large section of the titanic lizard's arms had been torn apart by that blast, and he was bleeding into the water below him.

It was a really bad sign, because it seemed that even Godzilla could be injured by the invader if it truly went all-out, and apparently, it still hadn't been using all of its weapons. Dracula had nearly finished regenerating from his own injuries by that point, but things didn't exactly look good for him, or for the planet Earth. The vampire lord knew that if Godzilla was defeated, neither he nor Dobson could do anything to stop the giant. However, he still had no intention of interfering in the fight. In his eyes, after all, the survival of the world didn't mean a thing if he died, and he was quite convinced that the king of the monsters was still holding a grudge against Dracula for trying to manipulate him during their brief encounter near Tokyo.

It wasn't long before the ancient vampire began to hear the sounds of whirling helicopter blades, and looked up, to his surprise, to find that they were coming from Dobson's machine, which she'd apparently managed to get working again, because it was traveling quickly towards the building that Dracula was standing on. Soon, it had come to rest on top of another building, not too far away, and just a moment later, there was a burst of blue flame, erupting from the ground a few feet away from him. When the flames finally faded away, there was Dobson, looking somewhat pleased with herself, in spite of her failure.

"I'm impressed that you managed to get it flying again." Dracula said icily, but Dobson just shrugged a little before responding.

"It just needed a couple replacement parts, though I'll want to augment its weapons a bit more when I have the chance. I'm glad the big guy's taking care of this fight, for now."

"You're being optimistic again." Dracula observed disdainfully, "The fight isn't going well for Godzilla."

"I don't think that's true." Dobson just replied, however, "I've never had the pleasure of seeing him in person, but I've studied plenty of news footage of Godzilla, and from what I can tell, he seems to fight at his best when the enemy can actually injure him. It's almost like he has a whole second level of power that he doesn't like to use against unworthy foes. Still, I might be misinterpreting that. It could be something else."

"Like what?" Dracula asked, suddenly growing interested by the young woman's observations.

"Well, don't take my word for it," Dobson said at last, "but it's possible that Godzilla, in addition to his power and size, is also a genius at fighting. He always seems to do much better against an enemy after losing to them, or being knocked down by them once, as if his skill against individual opponents grows as he memorizes their fighting techniques. I've even seen him anticipate a surprise attack that he's never seen before, after fighting an enemy for long enough."

"Are you trying to tell me that Godzilla will be harder to beat after being wounded; not easier?" Dracula asked in near-disbelief, but Dobson couldn't answer that question definitely, so instead, she said nothing, just continuing to watch the fight. The king of the monsters was scrambling to his feet again, but the look in his eyes wasn't stunned or weak, or even a look of blind rage. There was a coldness in those eyes; a look of nearly calculating intelligence, which Dobson had long suspected that the monster possessed; at least in some capacity. It was a bad sign for the enemy whenever a fighter got that look in their eyes, because it was the look of a war vet, who could be cool under fire, and still make up new strategies and plans on the fly; the most dangerous kind of enemy there was.

* * *

In only a second, the wounded Godzilla had charged forward again, ducking to one side as the alien fired, then swept his tail around, knocking the robot over, even as he continued to charge. Before the alien machine could even hit the ground, Godzilla's elbow had shot out, knocking its torso to the ground as well. Soon, both pieces of the robot were down right next to one another, and were gradually forming into one again. However, at that point, more guns emerged from the alien machine's legs, firing at Godzilla, and forcing him to back off for a moment. By the time he could finish advancing again, the robot was back on its feet, standing in a fighting position with its visor shining. It was a bit taller that Godzilla, but it was clear that the king of the monsters wasn't scared. In fact, the look in his eyes more resembled eagerness than fear.

All at once, the alien's whole body seemed to be opening up in a hundred places, revealing a hundred different guns and weapons of various types, and soon, every last one was firing simultaneously, heading towards the enormous monster in a huge arc.

However, Godzilla still didn't flinch. It seemed that he was already prepared for that kind of attack, because at seemingly the last second, with barely any visible effort at all, Godzilla spun around, his tail radiating a visible pulse of nuclear power, and soon, every last one of the weapons had been knocked off-course, and he was charging at the alien again. Its eye was still shining as it prepared another, more deadly beam attack, but the monstrous lizard had grabbed him by the shoulders just a moment later. When the alien fired its beam weapon again from its eye, Godzilla merely ducked to one side, avoiding it, then turning back to face his enemy again, he opened his mouth...

Dobson was genuinely shocked by the sight; more so than she would have been otherwise. Godzilla had unleashed his thermonuclear breath, which looked a great deal like a jet of intense, blue flame, and in seconds, the visor of the alien had been blasted into slag. At once, the entire rest of the machine began to divide again, splitting into numerous smaller robots, each preparing to fire weapons of their own, but by that point, there was no contest. Godzilla's powerful thermonuclear attack was already beginning to melt them on their feet, and soon, molten metal had spread across the harbour and into the ocean, creating a huge cloud of steam, which rose up to obscure the sight of the enormous monster that had just slain the invader from space. However, even through the steam, it was clear that Godzilla had leapt once into the air, its arms and legs all waving in victory, as it gave one final roar.

Then, just like that, it was gone. The waves rose up one last time, flowing into the streets of London, and cooling off the molten metal that had once been the alien giant, releasing even more steam, but Godzilla himself, it seemed, had sunk beneath the waves, disappearing from sight once again. It was the only place in the world where a creature that big could hide, because the ocean was a vast domain, even for a monster that was larger than a full-grown whale. Still, Dobson couldn't help but worry as she watched it all happen in front of her, because in that moment, she remembered the words of Dan Torrence; the prophecy he'd given her. The appearance of monsters, light and darkness spreading across cities, and something like a dragon. For the first time, Dobson had finally managed to connect all the key points of Mister Torrence's prophecy, but unfortunately, she still had no idea just what was going to happen to the planet Earth next; whether the team she'd joined would succeed or fail in their struggle.

It was always frustrating for Dobson to not know everything; not being able to schedule her own successes and failures properly, and she'd certainly had her share of both, even recently. However, she still remembered what had really set her on that course for her life; the motive that she'd had from the start, and the one breakthrough that had always eluded her, despite her extensive studies in physics, chemistry and the structure of the human body and its limits; a study that Adam had assisted her with even more than he could have realized. Still, the one technology; the one power that she really wanted had completely escaped her grasp; the power to control her own fate.

At every single stage of her life, Dobson had been thwarted by the plain, ordinary circumstances that had surrounded her, and for a genius, there was nothing more insulting than being made a fool of by something without a brain to drive it. Her father's whole relationship with her mother had been shallow and poorly-considered on both of their parts, which was why she'd never known her mom. Her father's death had been a freak accident, and her relationship with her grandmother had always seemed more like some ridiculous coincidence than anything else. Perhaps, she thought, it was even an unfortunate bump on the road of her life, given all the people who both Helen and Stephanie had hurt to get where they were. However, the one thing that Stephanie Dobson felt the worst about, and the thing about her past that she was most eager to change, had been something that had happened during high school.

* * *

At sixteen, Dobson had been fighting her way through high school. Her grades were alternately fantastic and mediocre, depending on the subject. In mathematics, her grades had been generally excellent, and her understanding of basic physics had clearly pleased many teachers, but once she'd moved on into biology, it had quickly become obvious that she would never get a passing grade in it. It wasn't that she didn't understand the subject of biology, though. On the contrary, by the time she'd reached high school, Dobson had already succeeded in reverse-engineering a formula to make biological organisms invisible.

The problem was that she and her teachers were constantly at odds when it came to explaining just how biological organisms develop, and in what ways. For some reason, teachers and textbooks seemed hell bent on teaching the most ridiculously silly things when it came to the development of species. Dobson could never have agreed with them, however, because her own research into the subject had already driven her in a completely different direction.

Stephanie Dobson had been completely and totally convinced, at the time, that the development of an animal during its own natural lifetime was only possible within certain ranges, and that there was no evidence whatsoever that those ranges could be altered, except by artificially tampering with the beast's genes. Therefore, she was absolutely sure that no living thing was truly indigenous to planet Earth; that in short, every life-form on Earth was really of alien origin. After all, as well-balanced as Earth's ecosystem was, it simply wasn't sufficient to explain the origin of species.

Dobson did a great deal of research into the subject herself, dissecting numerous animals, mutating others artificially, and cataloging her results in preparation for her big breakthrough; the trans-Earthly origins of man. At last, Dobson had given her report to the class, citing examples of specific animals, whose maximum potential verified her theories, drawing conclusions about what kind of intelligence must have been used to design specific genes, and even making a few suggestions as to which sectors of space were the most likely points of origin for the planet Earth's life forms.

She was brief with her report, but thorough as well, and at the time, she'd fully expected it to be hailed as an astonishing scientific breakthrough, or if not, then at least the teacher might point out what was wrong with it, giving her something else to consider, and learn from in future studies. However, what happened in that classroom was neither constructive, nor encouraging.

Nearly every single person there; students and teachers alike had laughed at her conclusions, and at her presentation.

Throughout the presentation, there was only one person who didn't laugh; a boy who Dobson had known since she'd been very young. In fact, they'd known each other for so long, that he remembered the paintings she'd once done; back before the studying and frantic learning had engulfed her life. His name was Hans Moran, and even during high school, Dobson had entertained thoughts about starting a life with him one day; perhaps raising a family of bright, young science students. However, when he looked at her, up at the front of the class, all that she saw in his eyes was pity. It was impossible to tell whether he'd arrived at the same conclusions as her or not, but for some reason, he looked like he was feeling sorry for her, and that was the worst thing of all.

Dobson had held her temper in check when they'd all laughed at her. She bit her tongue when the teacher had called her report "science fiction nonsense." However, when she spoke with Hans outside of class, he said the one thing that changed her life forever.

"Are you okay, Stephanie?"

"I'll be... I'll be alright." Stephanie had replied hesitantly, though inside, she wasn't sure that she would be.

"Stephanie..." Hans said, however, sounding very sad as he continued, "Why'd you give that report? I mean, what was the point?"

"I thought it was brilliant." Stephanie had just said testily.

"Even if it was," Hans replied, telling her absolutely nothing about how he felt, "that's something to save for college; maybe even a major thesis. All we have to do in high school is have some fun, and learn what they have to teach us."

"But don't you see?" Dobson nearly shouted, her eyes virtually aflame with passion as she stared up into Hans' face angrily, "They're teaching us lies in that classroom! This isn't education! It's indoctrination! I thought if I could turn the whole system on its ear, maybe... maybe I could fix things... but they... they all laughed."

"I'm sorry," Hans said at last, "but sometimes, people just learn what they want to learn. Right now, I just want to go to a normal high school, and have a good time with my friends. I'm... Well, Stephanie, I'm a little tired of worrying about who's right and who's wrong."

However, in that statement, Stephanie had noticed volumes of meaning. Hans was saying the one thing that she could never just deal with.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"I guess what I'm saying is that I liked it better when you painted." Hans said at last, "I mean, they weren't masterpieces, but I didn't have to keep defending you either. This constant fixation on finding a solution that's more right than everyone else's..."

"Is what science is all about!" Dobson squeaked in open fury, "If you don't believe there's only one way that the universe actually works, then go back to kindergarten!"

"Dobson..." Hans had muttered in what looked like shock and dismay, "Why are you yelling at me?"

However, by that point, Stephanie Dobson could see where the conversation was going. Somewhere along the way, Hans had picked up the desire to act like everyone was right. It was a foolish, shortsighted desire, which destroyed the whole concept of established fact, and, in Dobson's eyes, had already done incalculable damage to the scientific community. Those who succumbed to that desire, and allowed it to influence their actions were the very sort of people who'd just laughed Stephanie Dobson out of that biology classroom; people who thought that diversity; not fact, was the source of truth.

Dobson felt nothing but fury for that mentality, and all who'd dared to contribute to it, and in that moment, she realized that if Hans hadn't considered himself her friend, he would have been laughing at her too. It wasn't that he had a sensible thought in his head; he'd just been trying to be polite, and from that moment on, she knew that she could never love him again; not the way she had.

"I'm quitting all the biology courses." Dobson said bitterly, as she turned away from Hans one last time, "You've already been indoctrinated too much. I can't teach fools who don't want to learn."

"Wait a minute!" Hans had said, finally starting to get angry, but that was when Dobson began yelling again in the high-pitched squeal that she'd been building up to just a moment before.

"No, Hans! If you can't accept that real science is about facts, then you hate science, and if you hate science, you hate me! Don't make this more difficult than it has to be. Just say it aloud, and go on your merry way. As for the rest of the people in that so-called classroom, they all laughed at me for telling them the truth, but I'm going to show it to them anyway! I'm going to show them all!"

Dobson had never said another word to Hans after that. The world of human beings had repeatedly taken things from her, and from that moment on, she'd decided, she was going to jostle human society just as badly as it had jostled her. That had been her motive; the reason she kept using for just why she was so committed to making true discoveries, again and again. She had to do things for herself, and she had to do them by force. It was just that simple.

Ironically, Dobson's doctorate was in economics, not science, but it couldn't really have been otherwise. The only way that Dobson had of defending herself was to make sure that her knowledge of the universe was greater than everyone else's, and to use that knowledge as best she could. That was why she always felt uncomfortable, whenever there was something that she couldn't predict. She knew that if she didn't stay one step ahead of the game, it meant that she might one day be forced into servitude, to people who refused to accept even the most basic truths about logical reasoning, and that was something that she absolutely refused to do.


	21. Chapter 21: Adam, Klaatu and Gort

Chapter 21: Adam, Klaatu and Gort

* * *

Adam hadn't been having an easy day at all. It seemed that no one had told the American military that he wanted to help them, because the secret service and the national guard had both reacted badly to his presence near Washington, and it had eventually led to a short shootout, which had ended when Adam had leapt into their midst, and swept his arms around, knocking the weapons from their hands, and stunning each one of them with powerful electric shocks.

Adam Frankenstein hadn't wanted to get into a battle with the military, but he'd realized, as soon as they'd started shooting, that his only option was to fight them himself, if he didn't want Barry Hammerson to snap and kill somebody. That was the reason why Adam had started pummeling the human authorities; he'd been trying to save their lives, and for a while, he'd seemed to be doing pretty well, driving the human soldiers back, and twisting their firearms into useless scrap metal. However, that was when his day got a whole lot worst, because in the dim sunlight of dusk, Adam could see that something had started to descend from the sky, off towards the ocean; something huge.

It had to be at least three hundred feet high, and it looked just like the robot that Adam had fought in the alien saucer, complete with the bright, shining spot in its visor. However, Adam had never even contemplated fighting something that big before. For several moments, he just looked across the city at it; absolutely dumbfounded, listening to the panicked cries of the military and government officials as they ran for their cars as fast as they could go, but Adam already knew enough about just what that alien machine was. Escaping from it wasn't like escaping from a tornado, and if he tried to run, it might actually be able to destroy the planet. As little chance as Adam had against the thing, he knew that he didn't have a choice either. If he failed, or if he ran, the world could wind up dying, and as bad as that situation was, he couldn't just refuse to accept it. He had to do the best he could, and hope that he could slow it down or damage its power supply in some way; just enough to keep it from threatening the survival of the Earth.

As soon as the troops had started retreating, Adam began running towards the ocean, where the huge, metal giant had landed, and Barry joined him only a couple of seconds later. Adam had been sure, at first, that Barry would be too scared to make a move, when he was faced with an enemy like that, but it seemed that after all his recent experiences, Barry Hammerson just wasn't afraid of suffering physical harm. In fact, it looked as if he'd already put his real fears to bed, and was feeling more exhilarated than scared by the sight of their enemy. In a way, Adam almost envied Barry his confidence. Still, he knew that he had to do the best he could to come up with some kind of plan before they reached the place where the alien giant was already stepping out on shore, and if it was anything like the creature he'd fought aboard the saucer, he knew that finding some way to destroy its visor; its apparent primary weapon might be the first step. After that, locating its power supply was the next priority, because deactivating that would probably mean disabling the machine completely.

Hoping that Barry would follow his lead, Adam reached the alien giant at the last second, just as it was walking past the docks, and heading into Washington D.C. For some reason, the monstrous robot seemed to be largely ignoring him, though its eye continued to shine very powerfully as it moved. However, as far as Adam could see, aside from the visor, the whole robot was one huge sheet of metal, and that meant that if he wanted to get at any kind of vital point on the creature, he needed some means of climbing up it; some kind of rope strong enough to support his weight.

On instinct, Adam turned towards the half-crushed docks that the alien giant had just finished walking over, and there, he saw the very thing that he needed. Among the remains of several destroyed ships, Adam saw two long, thick chains, which had apparently been dragged up on shore after being briefly entangled around the alien's legs. Quickly, Adam seized them, connecting them to one another, to form one very long chain with a thick, heavy anchor on one end. It wasn't much of a weapon, and would have been totally unusable for most people, but Adam was just strong enough to make some use out of a thick anchor chain like that.

Barry didn't seem sure of exactly what Adam had planned until the last second, when he started swinging the anchor around like a huge mace, and at last, with one massive lunge, He'd slammed it into the leg of the metal giant, and found himself being pulled through the air. At that point, Barry seemed to have caught on, because he grabbed the end of the chain, just as it was being yanked into the air by the metal giant's foot. However, unfortunately, that was when the giant truly noticed Adam for the first time.

At once, the top half of the alien giant; from the waist up rotated around as if on a tripod, and soon, he was looking down at the place where Adam and Barry were clinging to the chain, and the patchwork man knew that he needed to make a move quickly. He'd been able to deflect the attacks of the first alien he'd fought, but that one was much bigger, and its beam weapons would probably be a lot more powerful. Barry might still be able to survive a direct blast, but even that wasn't guaranteed. After all, if that alien had the power to destroy the world, it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that it could destroy a werewolf too.

However, the giant didn't fire, at first. Instead, it started bending over just a little, forcing Adam and Barry to climb further up the chain, to keep from being dragged along the ground. Then, it swung one of its arms at them, and soon, its fingers had closed around Adam's body, even as he clung to the chain.

The moment that the metal giant's hand had clenched into a fist around Adam, he'd let go of the chain with both hands, spreading out his arms and legs alike and bracing them against the titanic fingers of the monster from space, in a desperate attempt to keep from being crushed by them. Adam wasn't exactly sure why he'd thought that would work, but it certainly hurt a lot more than he'd expected it to. He could feel his muscles straining to survive under the pressure of the enormous machine's strength. He was strong, of course, but that machine could press down on him from a lot more angles. Still, he was able to put up quite a fight against the enormous hand, even before he started lashing out with his electric charges.

With a sudden snap of power, electricity began traveling through the robot's hand, and something inside that hand seemed to have been injured by the attack, because it backed off for a moment, giving him the chance to climb a little further up the chain, until he eventually reached the place where the anchor had penetrated the giant's metal armor. Barry wasn't far behind, though he was starting to look just a little scared by that point, even before the robot's lower leg opened up, and three separate gun nozzles emerged from within it, firing all at once at the two monsters.

Adam only had a moment to react to the new attack, so he didn't really have time to plan anything, but he quickly slid down the chain, past the place where Barry had embedded his claws in the robot's leg, and spread out his feet, forcing electricity to run through them. Soon, the sound of rumbling thunder echoed all across the city of Washington D.C., as the electric charge in Adam's legs deflected the small blasts that had been headed towards the two monsters. The weapons retreated back behind the giant's armor just a moment later, but it had been a very close call, and Adam had already seen enough to convince him of just what needed to be done next. That war machine didn't just have one gun, or a couple. There were lots of hidden guns; maybe even dozens, all over its body, and any one of them was a lethal threat to human life.

Quickly, Adam climbed the chain again, embedding his fingers in the strong, alien metal, and wrenching the anchor back out one-handed. Then, he just waited patiently. It seemed as if Barry was waiting too; not sure what Adam was planning next, or if he even had a plan, but just a moment later, when the armor of the robot began to open just above where Adam and Barry were clinging to it, and more guns started emerging from its upper leg, he made his move.

In a flash, Adam Frankenstein swung the anchor upward, until it was caught in the tiny doorway that one of the gun nozzles had just emerged from. Then, in just another second, he'd begun scrambling up the side of the robot towards that tiny, open door, charging his feet with electricity as he went. Barry followed not too far behind, though of course, none of the electricity in the metal was about to travel through him. Before any of the guns could get off even a single shot, Adam had reached the first of them, and squeezed it closed with his bare hands, so that it couldn't fire. Then, in just a moment, he'd slid into the gun compartment, just slightly inside the armor of the metal giant, with Barry following behind him as quickly as possible. It was only once they were both inside the open gun compartment that Barry said a word to Adam, and his reaction was a little unexpected.

"That was really awesome."

The comment brought a smile to Adam's face, but of course, he knew that he couldn't afford to drop his guard, because after all, the job was still less than half done, and the danger was probably greater than ever. The gun compartment was no more than seven, by three, by seven feet, which meant that there was only just barely enough room for the both of them, and there didn't seem to be any sensitive equipment in there to destroy, so Adam had a feeling that if he really wanted to do any lasting damage to the huge invader, he'd need to bust through the inner wall of the place, and he'd probably need Barry's help for that.

"I guess so," Adam admitted at last, "but we've still got work to do. Can you help me tear through this wall?"

"Yeah! Sure!" Barry exclaimed, looking almost honored by the request, and in just a moment, he'd whipped his hand around in a clawing motion, and the metal that surrounded them shrieked in protest, as the entire wall gave way. Quickly, Adam shoved the severed metal plate aside, and stepped out into the open space that Barry had just created. However, what he saw at that point nearly took his breath away.

The inside of the huge robot looked more like the vacuum of space than any kind of machine; at least at first. Adam saw darkness all around, except in some distance places, where he could spot many tiny lights, but once he got his bearings, and looked a little more closely, he realized that the tiny lights were actually just reflecting off the surrounding walls, and that there were really only a few small lights in that chamber, which he was seeing as stars because it was so dark. For a moment, he felt around in the dark for any piece of loose metal, and he eventually found one; a thick, metal rod that had been set up as part of a railing system, just a few yards down from where he and Barry had entered. Soon, Adam had wrenched a chunk of the metal loose, torn off a piece of his left pant leg, wrapping it around the end of the metal rod, and ignited it with a snap of electricity. He was down one pant leg, of course, but in exchange, he'd gotten a makeshift torch, and could actually see what the inside of the giant robot really looked like.

For some reason, the robot's inner workings didn't look all that different from modern computers. The tiny, flickering lights that Adam had noticed were apparently power indicators, and several walkways, stairs, railings and computer terminals of some sort had been scattered throughout the titanic machine's innards. If there was a way to shut it down, he realized immediately, it would be hidden in one of those terminals.

Adam's experience with computers was only slightly better than his experience with biology, but with his sharp intellect, he was able to decipher the lettering on the alien interface keyboard within a very short time. There was also a tiny, black spot just above the computer screen, which was probably a microphone, although nothing that Adam said into it seemed to get any kind of response, so instead, he focused on cracking the alien code.

Adam was working at that for nearly a minute and a half before Barry started losing his patience just a little, speaking up about that subject, which he'd once had quite a bit of talent in.

"Looks like you need a password, or they won't log you into the system.'

Adam had concluded that already, but he wasn't sure what to do about it. After all, he had no idea what the password was, or how to express it with that strange, alien alphabet. In a few moments, though, he just decided to ask Barry for more advice.

"Do you think there's some way to get the password and get into the system?"

"Well, no password's uncrackable." Barry replied with a shrug, "Normally, I'd just hook up a second computer to it, and use the second to deactivate the password program of the first, or at least tell me when I'm getting close. The problem is, these are alien systems. There's no guarantee they work like ours, and even if they did, our computers wouldn't be compatible with theirs."

Adam had to admit that that was a problem, but he wasn't giving up. Quickly, he started looking around for another computer terminal, and eventually found one screen that wasn't connected to anything else, turning it on. To his amazement, that one opened right up without the need for any passwords, but of course, it wasn't connected to any of the systems on board the giant. Furthermore, there was only one available file, as far as Adam could see, and when he activated it, something strange started to happen.

At once, from the very top of the computer screen, a small, glass bauble started to emerge, and it rose up higher and higher, until it was elevated on a thin, metal pole. Then, it began to glow, and Adam started to realize that it wasn't just a piece of glass; it was some form of alien image projector. In only another second, he also discovered just what kind of image it had been built to project, because it appeared right next to him, looking just as real and human as Barry or himself. It was a man who Adam had already seen once in a projection, and once in a vision granted to him by the pool of insight in Egypt; the alien who called himself Klaatu.

"Greetings and peace from the galactic alliance." Klaatu said very somberly a moment later, "I'm truly sorry that you are seeing this message, because it means that your world is still in conflict with itself. When I left your planet a lifetime ago, I warned you that bringing violence to other worlds would be enough to provoke retaliation from my people, for our own protection. However, the very fact that the planet-incinerator has been sent to your world indicates your failure to heed my warnings. Someone from your planet has committed an act of violence on another world. However, I can also see that some of your people are civilized, as well. Otherwise, you would merely have destroyed every computer terminal you came across within this machine, instead of trying to decipher their purpose. That makes me feel the saddest of all, because even during my last visit, it was the same way; bloodthirsty savages lived together with civilized men on your world, each conflicting with the other at every turn, as if struggling to redeem your people from their sins. Obviously, you have failed. I cannot go back on my decision to protect the galactic alliance from your people, but as a favor to you, I can tell you a little bit about this machine, and how it works."

Then, simultaneously, Klaatu continued to talk as explanations and diagrams of the monstrous robot appeared on the screen, and in spite of his confusion and distress, Adam absorbed the information eagerly. However, once he'd learned all that he felt he needed to about the robot's design, Klaatu said one more thing, which Adam truly found haunting.

"If you believe that I am mistaken, and you have not committed an act of violence on extraterrestrial soil, I encourage you to seek out the video archive terminal, within this machine's head. There should be a video record of the crime in question there. I know that this will be no comfort to you, but please know that I did not wish for things to come to this."

However, Adam actually felt a lot more disturbed after what he'd just seen and heard. He could tell that Klaatu had never wanted to do evil, but there was, it seemed, some wicked force that he was terrified of. He'd let his fear push him into attacking the Earth, and for the first time, Adam found himself questioning just what the aliens were so afraid of, that it would be worth destroying the entire population of an inhabited world.

* * *

The diagrams that Adam had seen of the robot just a short time ago had shown him where nearly everything was within it; the power source, the video archives, and the nodes that were used to distribute power to its various systems. After having Barry cut a hole in one of the walls, so that he could make sure that the robot was still aboveground, however, Adam made a difficult decision. While sabotaging the power supply was by far the most important thing, he didn't want to do it until he knew just what that whole invasion was really about. Before long, he and Barry had reached the power source in the center of the robot's chest; a large, metal cylinder, about the width of a car, and several times as tall. For a moment, Adam turned to Barry, not sure how the werewolf would take his next instructions.

"If I don't come back in five minutes, start tearing this thing to shreds. Otherwise, start tearing it to shreds when I give you the signal."

"Count on it." Barry just replied, standing at the ready within inches of the power source, as Adam continued his climb upward, towards the head of the huge robot, where he could already see the flickering light of an active computer terminal.

Fortunately, there were only a couple of terminals in that section, and it didn't take long for Adam to find the one that accessed the video archives. There were several videos with simple names, but one of them, Adam already recognized, bore the alien word for "crime," and another, the word meaning "verdict," two words that he'd seen translated for him by the image of Klaatu less than a minute ago. Quickly, Adam selected the "crime" video and prepared for the worst.

However, what Adam saw in that video actually shocked him. It started on the surface of what looked like Mars, with a metal and plastic structure set up not far away. The camera zoomed in quickly on the structure before long, looking through a transparent window at two people inside of it; a man and a woman, and suddenly, the sound kicked in too, though no words passed between the two.

The man looked like he was in some kind of a trance, and the woman looked absolutely ferocious, opening her mouth wide with a hiss, and again, the camera zoomed in. Adam could see the sharp fangs that lined the woman's mouth, and he recognized the posture of both the woman and her victim as she sank those fangs into his neck, drinking deeply of his blood. Soon, the video stopped, but several things had already clicked into place for Adam. He'd been fairly sure, up to that point, that the aliens had been the first to attack, but in reality, the one responsible for that whole mess was a careless, wicked vampire. Adam almost felt as if he didn't even need to hear Klaatu's verdict, but he activated the second video anyway, a moment later.

"Unfortunately, there's no doubt about the meaning of what I've just seen." Klaatu said, in the second video that Adam had opened up, "Earth contains such barbarism and ethical weakness, that the fanged abominations have begun to surface there. By itself, that's no threat to any other planet, but if one or more of them should happen to reach a galactic alliance world, the whole struggle could start all over again. I can't disobey the laws of my people; not even the sacrifice of a whole planet is too big a price to stop the Daerlin menace from resurfacing, though the very thought of even watching during Gort's attack... The very thought makes my soul weep."

"Daerlin never get far on a world that has wise and strong champions to fight against them while they're still young. However, it seems that either Earth has no champions like that, or else they refuse to support them for one reason or another. I'll ask Gort to do more research on human society before the invasion begins, if only to stall for time, and so that I can learn the reason for this, but I'm afraid that I may already know the answer. It seems as though human beings have simply grown weak of heart; unable or unwilling to defend themselves from the results of their own sins, or perhaps they've completely lost the willingness to choose right over wrong. Perhaps their societies have even begun to defend wickedness instead of justice. There are many possibilities. I won't be satisfied until I know the truth, if then, but obviously, some action needs to be taken. We've left this alone for too long already."

Then, the video ended, and several things were already becoming clear to Adam; what kind of person Klaatu was; where the attacks against them had really been coming from, and most of all, just what needed to be done to stop him and Gort. Adam didn't like it, but he knew that the job ahead of him was going to be a lot more difficult that he'd first suspected, because the aliens weren't the only problem that he needed to worry about.

In just a few moments, Adam had leapt down from the head of the robot again, sliding down a long cable, towards the place where he'd left Barry standing next to the machine's power source, and soon, he gave Barry a signal to start attacking, which the young werewolf picked up on very quickly, swinging his arms around in a clawing motion.

However, something was wrong. Before Barry's hand could make contact with the power source, some kind of concentrated light beam shot up out of the floor, striking his hand with a blinding, white radiance, and just a moment later, he burst into flames, falling back away from the power source in obvious fear and pain. Adam nearly gasped in worry as he rushed over to where Barry was still burning on the floor, and writhing in what looked like agony, but pretty soon, the fire went out, and fortunately, the werewolf boy was still alive. It seemed that the flames hadn't really hurt him that much. However, the light from the beam that had first struck him had been different somehow. His hand was a wreck; all covered in burns and twisted into an uncomfortable-looking shape. Adam was actually worried about him by that point, because that particular injury didn't seem to be healing. However, just a moment later, he realized that he really had a right to be worried about them both, because panels were starting to open along the inside of the metal giant's skin, and the gun nozzles that had once emerged from the outside of its armor were all beginning to aim inward; directly at Adam's head.

For some reason, Adam had felt much safer once he'd managed to get inside of the metal giant, but, he was starting to realize, he was in even greater danger there. Quickly, he seized one of the railings, with the intent of using it as a weapon, and immediately started to smile. There were hundreds of volts running through that railing.

No doubt, the alien had been trying to immobilize Adam, by activating all the deadly traps and defenses that it could within its own body; like a cell sending out antibodies to kill an invasive germ. However, in that case, the "germ" only grew stronger when exposed to certain kinds of antibodies, and Adam could already feel his power growing as he held onto that railing. The electricity traveled into him in a steady stream, energizing his body with power, until finally, the guns at the edges of the robot started firing, and he knew that it was time to make his move.

Quickly, Adam Frankenstein started building electric power in both hands, aiming for the beams as they shot towards him, and just like before, the sound of thunder echoed through that place as one death ray after another was deflected by Adam's power. He actually tried to deflect one beam towards the power supply once, but it seemed that the defensive barrier surrounding the power supply was a lot stronger than the beams being used against him. At first, he was a little troubled by that, but then he started to get another idea. It was dangerous, and probably very foolish, but if it worked, it might solve most of his problems. His hands still charged with raw, electric power, Adam reached right into the beams of light that had started to surround the alien power source, and winced in pain, as a flash of light, searing heat, and continuing crackle of thunder echoed through the whole chamber.

Beams of intense light shot off in all directions, the moment that Adam touched them. In a flash, one beam tore through the bottom of the power supply, melting right through it like butter, but for some reason, that didn't deactivate the machine, though about ten or twelve guns stopped working at around that time, so Adam just continued on through the pain, baring it patiently, and doing his best to reflect the enormously-powerful beams towards the guns that surrounded them. He'd managed to melt about a dozen more before too long, and the whole bottom of the power supply had fallen away with a crash, revealing that the part he'd damaged hadn't contained anything but a few connecting nodes, powering some of the giant's systems. However, it seemed like those systems had been at least a little bit important, because the giant had stopped moving.

Adam was feeling very encouraged by the way the struggle was going, but that was when he saw something that forced him to turn around again, and remove his badly-burned hands from the energy beams that surrounded the power source. Seven robots were flying towards him from the waist of the giant down below; all looking just like the one that had nearly killed him during the first invasion.

Adam only had a moment to react before the first of the robots struck him from underneath, seizing him by the neck. However, before it could do anything else to him, he had a counter-attack planned, and soon, an enormous electric charge was traveling through the robot that had grabbed him, frying circuits and disrupting signals throughout the whole robot's body. A moment later, when the thing collapsed into little more than a pile of silver dust, Adam wasn't nearly as worried as he'd been at first, and he was good and ready by the time the next two robots attacked.

The two enemies lashed out simultaneously, trying to slug Adam at once, but he held out his hands, and at the last second, he managed to catch their fists in mid-air, forcing them back with his own impressive strength, before driving them to the scaffolding below, while sending an electric charge through their bodies.

The remaining four seemed to have learned from the mistakes of the first three, because they started off by circling around Adam, firing disruptive beams from their visors. It was a troublesome attack, but Adam had a lot more experience with his powers than he had before, and soon, he'd swatted aside three beams with his electrically-charged hands, while dodging the fourth, then pointed one hand out at one of the robots, and with a deafening clap of power, a bolt of lightning struck out at it; the energy being guided more by Adam's will than by its own nature, and soon, the robot was disintegrating before his very eyes.

Adam could barely believe how well the battle with those things was going. Despite the burns that had covered his hands, and the fact that they could fly, and he couldn't, he was defending himself from the alien machines without missing a beat. Still, he could hardly expect it to go that well forever, and when he took aim at the next robot with his palm, its response proved that he'd been right to be worried. In spite of how well he'd done in the past, Adam's next lightning attack never made contact with its intended target, stopping mere inches from the robot's chest with a bright flash of light.

In that moment, before it had been about to hit the robot, Adam had seen the shape of the bright light that had surrounded the alien machine, before it had faded away again. It was a circular shape, like the electric auras that he projected around his fists, and, he realized in dismay, it had just blocked his most powerful attack.

He could already feel the burns on his hands healing up, because the pain was just starting to go away. However, he realized, he didn't have any choice but to put himself through it all over again, because penetrating the disruptive energy fields that the robots had just surrounded themselves with was going to require some serious firepower.

Charging his fists again, Adam plunged both hands back into the energy beams that were protecting the power source of the enormous giant, deflecting them off in new directions, and soon, two of the remaining robots had burst into flames, and Adam felt like his hands were about to do the same. Even through the protection of his electric barrier, the heat was enormously intense, just because of its convection alone. As Adam pulled his hands back out of the barrier again, he was starting to doubt that he'd be able to do that again for a while. Still, there was one more left, and Adam discovered, to his horror, that it was starting to look much stronger.

For one thing, the energy barrier around the alien robot had contracted, almost to the point of being like a second skin, but it was much more visible than it had been a moment before, and it made the alien machine look as if its whole body was just shining bright light in all directions on its own. In fact, Adam noted in dismay, it sort of reminded him of the power that the avenger of Thoth had used against him, not too long before; a thought that still chilled him to the bone with fear.

However, just then, the robot did something that made Adam even more afraid. In a second, it had rushed forward through the air, swinging one arm around towards him in a mighty blow. He managed to get out of the way just in time, but he could already see just what kind of damage the robot was capable of doing with punches like those, when its attack hit the nearby railing, and that whole section of the metal started tearing itself apart under the alien's touch.

In desperation, Adam tried to fire an electric charge at the robot, but just like before, it didn't seem to do a thing. It couldn't even reach him. Then, despite his better judgment, he shoved one hand back into the protective barrier surrounding the power source, and once again, an incredibly powerful beam of heat was reflected towards the robot. For several second, the beam hit the field that surrounded the machine, but when he couldn't take it any more, and pulled his charred hand back out of the laser-like beam again, he found, to his dismay, that the robot's aura only seemed to have been slightly dimmed by the attack.

Adam's mind raced as he searched for any weakness; any means of defeating that final enemy, but it was certainly hard to find one. His powers had grown much greater over time, but it seemed that the same was true of the machine. The most powerful energy nearby didn't seem able to get through his field, and matter alone disintegrated when it made contact with him. Adam could only think of one advantage that he had, and at last, when a plan started to form in his mind, he just hoped that it was enough. What he was about to try might well lead to his death, but there was no other way that he could think of winning.

Quickly, Adam charged his hands with electric power again, and waited for the alien to advance. At last, the robot made its move, charging at him through the air, with its fists outstretched, and at the last second, he caught both of those fists with his own still-charred hands.

The deafening sounds of that clash must have echoed through the whole body of the metal giant, as their energy forces struggled with each other. However, Adam could feel that his enemy was already beginning to overpower him, so he made his move. In a moment, his legs were covered in electric power too, and he moved them quickly, tripping up the robot with one leg, and vaulting him into the air with the other. It seemed that for the moment, Adam's power was just enough to protect him from being disintegrated, which gave him one last chance to grapple with the robot on even footing, and as skilled as the alien was, it couldn't defend itself from what he'd just done.

With that last kick, Adam had sent the robot flying, straight through the protective barrier, and into the power supply beyond, which began to disintegrate as soon as the alien's protective field touched it.

At once, raw energy began leaking out of the open power supply as its casing fell apart, and all over, things within that giant war machine began to lose their power and collapse. Quickly, Adam lifted the still-stunned Barry over one shoulder, and was just about to head back for the hole he'd entered by, when another idea occurred to him. He paused for a moment, and started to pull something out of one of his pockets, even as the energy was exploding all around him, shooting out in jets of flame and light...


	22. Chapter 22: The Eye of Power

Chapter 22: The Eye of Power

* * *

When the giant had stopped in its tracks, right in the middle of Washington D.C., it seemed as if the local authorities had started rapidly running out of ideas on how to deal with the situation. It had been plowing through buildings just a second before, but suddenly, it seemed that it wasn't moving anymore; just standing there silently in the midst of the city; its once-shining visor looking dark and lifeless. The military must have been a little puzzled about what to do. The idea of shooting the thing would have just been ridiculous, and yet, there was no guarantee that the huge machine was really dead. It might just be resting, or it might be trying to trick them, though why it would bother was anyone's guess. In the end, some of the higher-ups in the military had concluded that the best bet would be to sent a team of technical experts to try to figure out how the huge robot worked, and just why it had stopped working.

Of course, not one of the experts seemed to be feeling terribly safe when they set out on that mission, which was understandable, given than they'd just been ordered to dissect something that could crush a skyscraper in its arms. Furthermore, there didn't seem to be any openings in the giant machine except for the visor, and without some kind of flying apparatus, or a very large scaffold, there wasn't any way to reach it.

The experts continued trying to find some way into the monstrous robot for several hours, taking samples of the metal that made up its armor in the meantime, but unfortunately, those samples only told them what they already knew. The metal armor was a very strong alloy of some type, though nothing else quite like it existed on Earth.

However, after nearly three hours of trying to study the thing, a strange humming sound began to rise up from the horizon; a sound that seemed a lot like some kind of helicopter, and it was growing louder and louder. Soon, all of them turned to look at it, and there was one the strangest flying machines that any of them had ever seen; almost perfectly round, with rotating blades all over it. As they watched, the machine descended towards one of the buildings nearby, landing gear emerging from beneath it, and at last, the thing came to rest there.

Of course, normal procedure would have been to get on the radio and report the newcomer to their commanding officer, but that was impossible without a working radio. For the time being, the mission commander decided, it was his job to make a decision about what to do about that strange aircraft, but in the meantime, he wrote up a report and gave it to one member of his team, then told him to start running back to their base as fast as he could.

In the meantime, the mission commander continued watching the strange aircraft through his binoculars, though he still couldn't see any sign of anyone entering or leaving it.

* * *

Dobson had been enormously relieved when she'd seen that the giant in Washington had stopped working somehow. After everything she'd already seen the alien giants do, she'd been fully convinced that Adam and Barry would both have died at its hands, but it seemed that once again, they'd given her a big surprise, and there was an even bigger surprise waiting for her when she decided to try to salvage some of the alien technology, activating her portable teleporter, and transporting herself right into the middle of the alien giant's head. As soon as the blue fire died away around her, the sight that met Dobson's eyes made her gasp in surprise and amazement.

There were Adam and Barry, both sitting on the floor next to one another, as though trying to meditate, and both were surrounded by some kind of light. In Adam's case, the light looked like a constant, visible electric charge, traveling around him in a circle, but Barry's aura of light looked almost like genuine fire, and just the sight made Dobson feel completely out of her element once again. It was no secret that she'd been doing as much as she could to learn everything about both of them, and yet, she'd expected at least one of them to be dead after fighting such a powerful enemy, and on top of that, they were doing something that she was having a hard time explaining, right in front of her eyes.

For a moment, Barry opened his mouth and breathed in carefully, and suddenly, the aura that surrounded him seemed to flare up on its own, nearly tripling in size. Dobson swallowed when she saw that, not sure whether it would be wise to interrupt them, but then, something else happened to Adam, which Dobson hadn't anticipated. She'd seen him use his power to propel himself through the air more than once already, but never quite as well or as smoothly as he did just then. For a moment, it seemed like his whole body had vanished with a snap of electric power. Then suddenly, she saw a flash of lightning rush past her to the left, and then Adam was there in its place, slowly standing up at almost the very moment when he re-materialized. He still looked very calm, though he'd started to smile again when he turned to face Dobson; even as her mind raced, in a frantic search for some kind of logical explanation for what he'd just done.

"I'm glad you're here, Dobson." Adam said happily, "I thought you might want to take a look at what's left of this giant."

Of course, the mystery of Adam's new powers still hung like a monstrous shadow over Dobson's thoughts, but she had to admit that Adam had her figured out. As much as she wanted to learn just how Adam had gained such incredible abilities, her desire to learn about the alien machines that had just attacked them was every bit as strong. Soon, she was opening up computer terminals and taking apart a few things, then putting them back together again. It was a little hard to concentrate with Adam and Barry still in the same room, watching her silently, but in the end, what really disappointed her was that she wasn't learning much of anything from those systems. For some reason, it seemed like the actual interface terminals had been designed a lot like human computers; most likely to keep from giving away any of the aliens' technological secrets. Dobson had been a little scared of the invaders from space for a while, but that was the first time that she really started to hate them.

"There's not much here that I can use." Dobson admitted at last in disappointment, "The alloy that this thing is made of might be able to teach me a few things, but I was really hoping to get my hands on its power supply."

By that point, Dobson had turned around, looking back up at Adam in dismay, but something was wrong with him by that point, because he had a strange look on his face; like a cross between dread and curiosity.

"Why?" Adam asked, but at once, Dobson realized what had happened in that place, though she didn't know how it had happened exactly.

"You have it, don't you? You have the power supply for this thing! Where is it, Adam?"

However, Adam was obviously beginning to look just a little sick, and when he spoke again, he seemed to be feeling a bit disappointed.

"It's a little more complicated than that." he eventually replied, "I have something, but I'm still not sure what it is. If you want, I'll show it to you, but... I'd rather not do that until we've regrouped with the rest of the team. I don't want to talk about this behind their backs."

Dobson wasn't exactly satisfied with that reply, but there wasn't really much she could do about it. Whether she liked it or not, Adam had accomplished one of the biggest victories that she'd ever seen, and that meant that the next move was his.

"I'm parked on a roof just a few dozen yards to the south." Dobson said at last, a bit more icily than before, though she didn't go as far as glaring at Adam, "I'd like to leave within five minutes, if you can make it."

Then, Dobson pressed the button on her teleporter again, and she was almost glad when the teleportation flames removed Adam Frankenstein from her sight.

* * *

By the time Adam got back to Dracula's base in London, the common room had been converted in some very interesting ways. While it was still divided, with both enormous and normal-sized furniture, there was also a table erected in the center of the room, which was a bit oddly designed, and clearly a recent addition. For the most part, it looked like just a very large table, intended to be ten times bigger than a normal one in all three dimensions, as if it had been designed for Nancy's use. However, there were small, metal stairs leading up to the top of that table on one side, and another, smaller table had been nailed to the top of it, with a series of chairs positioned around it. The whole setup was right next to the enormous couch that had clearly been built for Nancy's proportions, and, Adam realized in amazement, it was the only kind of setup that would allow all of them to sit comfortably in the same place and just discuss what they'd learned from the last attack.

The others had all arrived at that table pretty soon. Nancy was one of the first, taking a seat on the couch, and resting her arms on the unoccupied side of the table; just watching in some worry when the others had begun to show up. Dracula, Imhotep and Adam had taken seats at the smaller table very quickly, and Dobson wasn't far behind, although it took Barry a bit longer, and the Gill-man was still nowhere to be found. Kong, of course, didn't seem to have taken an interest in the meeting at all, which was probably just as well, since he wouldn't have understood most of what they were talking about.

As soon as everyone was there, however, Adam decided that there was no point in trying to hide what he'd done any longer. Quickly, he removed something large and heavy from one of his pockets, placing it down on the table, and immediately drawing a gasp of surprise and worry from Imhotep. The object was about the size of Adam's fist, and it was made from some kind of stone, and glowing green as it sat on the table. Furthermore, it was no wonder that Imhotep recognized it, since he'd had it used against him recently. It was a sculpture in the shape of a vicious eye; the same eye that had once belonged to the statue of Osiris, in the temple that Adam and Imhotep had visited not long ago; the eye that had drained Imhotep of his powers with a mystical curse, leaving him mortal for a brief period.

Imhotep was a monster who was very rarely in mortal danger. He could be thwarted, routed, undermined, and escaped from, but killing him was a very big job, and yet, that eye, which Adam Frankenstein had just placed on the table was one of the few things in the world capable of doing it. It was his weakness, and it was easy to understand his fear. Imhotep knew what it meant to take risks, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed it, and in his eyes, it must have seemed as though every second spent around that eye was a risk. That was why Adam didn't hesitate before explaining himself.

"A while ago, I traveled with Imhotep to a temple in Egypt, where a magic pool was located, which showed us a number of visions, and one of them was this eye. Of course, we'd just been fighting with statues that used their magic eyes to drain away Imhotep's powers, so I knew the eye was special, and that was why I decided to take it with me. I just didn't know exactly how its powers worked, or whether I could use them for myself. It turns out, though, that I could, under certain conditions. This eye responds to the will of its user, draining a huge amount of magic and energy out of its target, and moving that energy somewhere else. I don't know how it does that, but if we can figure out where the energy goes, Dobson, you'll have your power supply. When I used this eye last, the power source of the metal giant was exploding all around me. I held out the eye in front of me, and suddenly, all the jets of energy, the beams of intense light, and the power source itself all started to get sucked into it. This thing saved my life, and Barry's too, and I'm still not sure how. When you said you were looking for a power supply, though, I knew I had to share this with the rest of you. I hope it's as handy for you as it was for me."

"You ought to have destroyed it." Imhotep replied furiously, but Adam couldn't just let that one sit.

"Why? Because it's a danger to you? Barry and I could have died back there. The whole city might even have been consumed by that energy if it hadn't been for the eye."

"Why should I care about that?" Imhotep replied, still frowning grimly, "It's only Washington."

However, before Adam could even reply to that remark, Dobson had grabbed the eye from the table, looking like she was about ready to dance around in joy, and holding the thing up in the air as if it were made of solid gold. Of course, it might well have been more valuable than that, but even so, Adam was a little surprised by Dobson's enthusiasm. It made him feel a little better, though, just seeing how happy she was.

"Give me a few hours to work on this..." Dobson said at last, the most playful smile in the world dancing across her face as she nearly squealed in delight, "I'll get something out of this; I promise."

Then, she virtually danced down the stairs towards the exit, pulling the huge door open, and almost skipping as she rushed outside, the door closing behind her.

For a moment, there was silence in that room, and Adam felt at least two people glaring at him, while the other two were just looking at him in stunned surprise. Nancy and Barry seemed amazed by what Adam had just told them, but unsure of just what else to feel. However, on the faces of Dracula and Imhotep, there was unmistakable loathing. Adam very much expected to get more complaints from the mummy a moment later, but as it turned out, it was Dracula who actually spoke next.

"Adam... You were foolish."

"What?" Adam asked, suddenly feeling confused, "Why?"

"You should have shared this discovery with us sooner." Dracula insisted angrily, "We could have learned much more from it, and nullified the alien menace much more easily."

However, much to Adam's dismay, Nancy seemed to see the logic in that approach too, because a look of disappointment had crossed her face when Dracula had said that.

"I wasn't sure whether it would work..." Adam explained, "Besides, I figured that it might cause division in our team if I told you about it too soon. I didn't want us to go into battle with the aliens hating each other..."

"So instead, you decided to be a cowboy and use the power for yourself."

"No. It's not like that. I wouldn't have even tried to use it, if I'd thought there was any other way to escape."

However, Dracula didn't seem to be hearing him, because in just a moment, he was standing less than a foot away from Adam, looking up into the taller man's face.

"Let me make something perfectly clear to you right now, Adam Frankenstein." Dracula said furiously, "I don't like you. I never liked you. The only reason that I invited you to join our team at all was because I thought we could depend upon you to do what needed to be done. Now, you may have just saved the world today. Don't think I'm ignorant of that. However, in the future, I want to be immediately informed of any new discoveries you've made, so that we can plan our attacks accordingly. Is that clear?"

However, by that point, Adam was sick of taking Dracula's abuse; especially after the victory they'd just managed to accomplish, and when he replied, he'd started to get truly angry as well.

"I understand everything about what you just said." Adam replied, his brow furrowing, "I just don't see why I should continue following your orders. After all, we won. We beat the aliens. Even the smaller power sources have been disappearing, now that the big ones are gone. Why don't we just disband our little team?"

"Because all we did was route one invasion force." Dracula replied, showing even more of his anger as he spoke, "There's no guarantee they won't try again, and with the power out, we're still not in any position to defend ourselves from them. You're being far too optimistic about the scope of our victory, Adam. It's a problem that many of you people tend to share. However, I refuse to be so careless. We're going to remain on our guard until we learn where these machines were made, who's sending them out, and until we put an end to them once and for all. You're intelligent enough to understand why."

Then, Lord Dracula turned around, his coat sweeping through the air behind him, and soon, he'd drifted down the stairs, and left the common room without another word. Imhotep followed close behind, glancing very angrily back at Adam as he left, and although Nancy and Barry stayed where they were, the giantess still had a disappointed look on her face. Barry seemed upset with the two who'd just left, because there was a snarl on his lips for a few moments, and he looked about ready to bite. Still, only Nancy said a word, breaking the silence that followed.

"Adam..." Nancy said, leaning over the top of the table, until her face was just slightly over the place where Barry and Adam were, "Why... Why didn't you tell me? Didn't you trust me?"

However, Adam just sighed at that point, because he had a feeling that Nancy wasn't going to like the answer that he had to give her.

"I trusted you not to lose confidence, or to loose your cool in battle because of it." Adam said, "I know enough about you to be sure that you're an experienced soldier. Still, experienced soldiers are used to taking orders from their superiors too, and I was afraid that... that..."

"You thought I was going to tell Dracula, didn't you?" Nancy asked, an angry look starting to spread across her face as she looked down at Adam, "Do you honestly think I've ever seen him as my superior?"

However, that question really had surprised Adam, because he'd always just sort of assumed that Nancy had been following the vampire in a military capacity; taking orders from him like a commander. He knew that she was a good person at heart, but sometimes, even good people had a tendency to view loyalty as a good thing; even when the person they owed loyalty to wasn't very good. For a while, Adam had made the mistake of thinking that Nancy was like that. In that sense, he realized, it was true that he just hadn't trusted her enough, and it made him feel like a heel. He knew that he had to make up for it as best he could.

"I'm sorry, Nancy." Adam just said at last, "I should have trusted you more, and I hope you can forgive me. I honestly thought that if I told you, you might feel obligated to inform Dracula, or else, he might overhear us on his own."

Nancy still looked a little distressed when Adam said that, but she seemed to understand what he was saying in spite of her disappointment with him. A moment later, she stood up, and the next thing she said sounded a little sad, but not as offended as before.

"You know, Adam, there are times when I still wish I could just up-end a brewery, and forget about everything just once more. I mean, I know I can't, but I... Well, you know what I mean."

Then, with loud, booming footsteps, Nancy walked over to the door and left just a moment later, leaving Adam alone with Barry, and that environment didn't make him feel very good at all. Of course, he and Barry were still friends, and their friendship actually had been improving recently, but he knew that Barry's advice wasn't worth a dime, with that lycanthropy running through his veins. Still, Adam would have felt remiss if he didn't at least ask him for some.

"What do you think, Barry?" Adam asked a bit sheepishly, "Did I really mess up that badly?"

"Nah." Barry responded, however, leaning back in his seat, although from the way his muscles were tensed up, Adam could tell that he wasn't really feeling as calm as he looked from his posture alone, "I don't see what all the fuss is about. I mean, we beat the invaders, we're still alive, and the Earth's still in one piece. Plus, we might have a chance to track their base down, wherever it is. All in all, I'd say we did an incredible job. You ought to be proud."

As it turned out, Barry's advice hadn't really been so bad, except for one thing. Adam knew that no matter how much he accomplished, or what kind of victory he managed to pull off, he couldn't afford to feel prideful. He just didn't like himself when he felt that way.

* * *

Dobson's first couple of experiments with the odd, green eye sculpture hadn't shown her anything about it at all, aside from the fact that it was made of hard stone, and colored an odd, green hue, but when she'd started sending low-level energy waves through it, she'd discovered something interesting.

It seemed that the eye sculpture reacted to energy by absorbing it, because the waves that Dobson was sending into the sculpture weren't coming back out again. However, as for where it was storing that energy, she still had no clue. For a moment, she wished that she could have drawn the energy back out of the sculpture for just a moment by reversing her experiment, and creating an energy vacuum around it, but she still wasn't sure how to make an artificial energy vacuum, and...

Just then, Dobson felt like slapping herself, because she knew where to find the biggest artificial energy vacuum on planet Earth. Quickly, she turned off her machines and rushed to the intercom that was perched on one of the walls, saying "Barry Hammerson, would you please come to the lab? I could really use your help figuring something out."

* * *

Of course, Barry couldn't have made the mistake of thinking that Dobson required his intellectual input, but he still seemed surprised when she asked him to just sit down and hold the eye in his lap while she ran some tests. Almost the very moment that Barry picked the eye up, it started glowing brightly, and the light continued growing when he sat down and covered it with his arms, as Dobson asked him to. However, after that, it only took a few more experiments before she started getting results, and although she still didn't completely understand how the sculpture drained energy, she'd gotten a clue about where it might have stored it.

Before, it had been hard to tell, because her probes kept vanishing into the sculpture, but Dobson could see that there was a strong force traveling into the sculpture from all sides, and an equally strong force, on a much more subtle frequency, emerging from it. It wasn't too noticeable at first, but slowly, she was starting to see that the energy it absorbed was being sent someplace else, and from the frequency of the transmission, she was already noticing that it could be tracked down to its destination. She'd never tracked an energy frequency using simple heat waves before, but, she reasoned, it sounded possible enough. The tough part would probably be figuring out how to tap into the vast power source once she found it.

Barry seemed to be getting a little nervous; probably worried that she might have forgotten about him or something, so just a moment later, once Dobson had the data she needed, she told him that it was okay to put the sculpture down again and stretch his legs, and that she probably wouldn't need anymore help from him for a while. In some ways, that seemed to have made him look relieved, but in others, he just seemed to have grown confused when he left the lab a moment later.

Immediately, Dobson started yanking machine components out of containment slots in the lab walls, forcing them into position and connecting them to one another with a series of rapid snapping noises, as each part locked itself into place. At last, she removed an interface terminal about the size of a briefcase from one side of the room, attaching it to the side of her hastily-assembled device, and placed a heat pellet into one of the holes in the machine, waiting for it to power up. Soon, she'd begun entering commands into the terminal with tremendous speed, giving it the frequency that she wanted it to track, until a message was displayed on her screen that made her smile in delight and satisfaction.

After that, Dobson had started yanking lengths of cable out of their place in one corner of the room, connecting the machine she'd just built to another scanning beacon on the other side of the lab, and watching with growing interest as the readouts continued to appear before her. She could see two sources of energy that she found interesting with that readout; one that was very close, and one that was far away, but notable because of its strength and size. In fact, she realized with a smile, she was sure what that second energy source was, and what needed to be done about it. The only thing she needed to worry about was getting the others to cooperate.

* * *

For some reason, Adam had felt as if someone had been standing over his shoulder, watching him for the last several minutes, but of course, he'd suspected that it was just paranoia. Still, he'd paced the hallways just in case, looking out for any sign of an intruder, and when he finally found the person he'd been looking for, it was a pretty big relief. Despite how recently he and the Gill-man had been at each other's throats, Adam had an easier time trusting him than he would have with any human being.

"Adam." the Gill-man hissed; his own form of brief greeting.

"Gill-man." Adam replied with a nod of acknowledgement, "Did you decide what you want to do next?"

"Yes." the Gill-man replied, though it was still hard to tell whether he was frowning or not, "I've been in pursuit of revenge for too long. That phase of my life is over. I also have plans for my life in the future; real plans, though they may not help as many as I'd like. In the meantime, I'd like to join you in your fight against the aliens for a while longer."

"Well, it's good to have you on board again." Adam replied with what he hoped would come across as a friendly smile, "It's too bad you weren't around during that last invasion. We really could have used your strength."

However, at that point, the Gill-man said something so obvious, that Adam was surprised it hadn't occurred to him before.

"You've had my help, Adam. Haven't you noticed that alien war machines have been vanishing all over the world? Who did you think was responsible for that, the local militia?"

Adam hadn't really thought much about it at all, and yet it was pretty clear just what had happened. The Gill-man had needed a few life lessons the last time Adam had seen him, but from the looks of things, he'd learned those lessons quickly, and had been trying to help people ever since then. It was an encouraging sight, and it was already starting to make him feel a little better, even before Dobson's voice reached them both over the intercom.

"Everyone come to the lab. I have new information on the aliens that should be very important."

The Gill-man looked a little confused and upset when he heard Dobson say that, but Adam just shrugged, and headed off towards the lab a moment later. Soon, the Gill-man had followed him as well, still looking a bit frazzled, but obviously, he'd finally made his decision about whose side he wanted to be on.

* * *

Dobson had set up an entirely new series of machines in her lab; complete with large scanning devices, interface terminals and at least three display screens, though the displays themselves were little more than charts, showing many-colored shapes, like some kind of thermal imaging device. It was very different from the last time that Adam had seen the lab, and at first, it threw him off just a little. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to just how quickly Dobson could build new machines, but he'd probably just have to learn to accept that about her, in time.

"I figured out how to access some of the power drained by that eye sculpture." Dobson explained with a big grin once everyone was gathered in or around the lab, "Of course, gaining access to that power was a big breakthrough. I can make things much faster, now that I have a decent power supply, and I'll be finished building a rocket soon, based on the designs used by the aliens themselves, but the real discovery was the scanning beacon I've finally perfected. It takes a lot of power to make it work, but it was worth it, because I just found out where the alien ship is; the one that sent those death machines after us just recently."

"In other words, that was just the beginning." Dracula noted ruefully. However, in that instance, it seemed that he was being a bit too pessimistic.

"No, I think they genuinely expected those robots to wipe us out." Dobson replied with a shake of her head, "We're definitely giving them a bigger fight than they thought they'd get, and that's the only reason I can think of for why they haven't already sent reinforcements. They clearly have the resources and technology to launch an attack against us on an even bigger scale. My guess is that they simply underestimated us, which works out well for us, since it means there's a break in the fighting, that we can take advantage of."

"To conquer their ship." Dracula concluded, and that time, it seemed, his guess had been on the money, because Dobson just nodded.

"The only way to really stop these aliens for good is to sabotage the ship they've been using to build these three-hundred-foot monstrosities. If we can do that, then not only will we bring their invasion to a screeching halt, but we'll gain access to the secrets of their production technology as well, and maybe be in a position to counter-attack if they try something like this again."

However, as Adam listened to Dobson and Dracula discussing plans for invading the alien ship that was in orbit near Mars, he couldn't help but feel like that probably wouldn't solve all of their problems. After all, the real reason why the attack against Earth had been ordered wasn't because Klaatu he had an extra invasion factory and needed something to do with it; it was because he saw their planet as a threat to his. Adam felt like he sort of understood Klaatu's concerns too, though he couldn't completely understand them without learning a little more about the planet Klaatu had come from, and the kind of people he was trying to protect. There was just something about him that didn't seem completely wicked, despite all the devastation his machines had caused. Still, there was no denying that taking over or disabling the flying war factory of the aliens was a good first step, and on top of that, it might give them the chance to learn a bit more about their enemy, so when Dobson started suggesting the use of a rocket to invade the alien ship, he didn't object. Still, there were doubts in the mind of Adam Frankenstein, even as the mad scientist revealed a few of the rocket pieces she'd been designing for a craft, which, she said, would be ready to go inside of a day, with just a little luck.

Adam was somewhat on board with the plans that Dobson and Dracula were formulating, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like his own loyalty to their team couldn't last, if his suspicions about the situation were correct.


	23. Chapter 23: The War Factory

Chapter 23: The War Factory

* * *

Dobson had finished her rocket about six hours later than she'd originally estimated, though when she was asked about it, she just said that she was new to space travel, and there'd been some complications, which she'd needed a bit of extra time to anticipate, such as the orbits of the two planets, velocity, the curve of the ship through space, and charting a path around the sun on the way there. Even when she was done, however, she said that it was probably going to be an eventful and dangerous ride, because while she was using a much faster propulsion system than any other on Earth, it would still be more than three hours before they reached Mars, and there was no telling what kind of resistance or weapons the alien craft would have at its disposal.

Dracula had seemed very concerned when Dobson had made that remark, insisting on knowing why she hadn't built weapons of her own into the rocket, but she'd replied by saying that of course her rocket had weapons on it, but she expected the aliens to be armed even better, and more importantly, to have more experience firing their weapons in space. For the time being, Dracula seemed to have accepted that explanation, though he still wasn't smiling. In fact, Adam didn't remember the last time he'd seen Dracula smile.

Unfortunately, in order the break the pull of Earth's gravity, Dobson had needed to make the ship fairly slender. It was tall and thin, like most rockets, and it had enough room for all of them to squeeze into it, but, Adam knew, it was going to be a hard few hours for Nancy and Kong. Dobson had built a chamber for them too, but it was only just big enough to contain them both if they really squeezed in carefully. Nancy had been glaring at Dobson when she'd pushed herself up against one of the walls of that rocket, but whether it was just because of the tight situations that Dobson kept putting her in, or whether there was more to it than that, Adam couldn't really tell. He suspected that there might be more to the story with those two; something that he wasn't quite seeing.

Soon, a strange, new type of energy was shooting out of the bottom of Dobson's machine. It was an odd color, like a cross between blue and light green; a sort of aqua-color, but it also seemed like a cross between some kind of mist and an electric charge, to gauge from its shape alone. Adam had no doubt that it was the very power source the aliens had been trying to use against them, and that was when he really started to feel afraid of Dobson again. After all, she was taking them out into space on a source of power that only she understood the nature of, and by her own admission, she wasn't exactly trustworthy. It gave Adam even more to worry about, but it didn't change what he had to do, and he absolutely refused to back down from that mission. There was no question that they had to stop the aliens, but even so, he didn't say a word to any of the other monsters during their journey; not even Barry.

At last, after quite some time had passed in that shuttle, there was a sudden jolt, and Adam looked up at the screens that dominated the shuttle's ceiling one more time. Sure enough, there was something out there, in orbit around Mars; something big and shiny, and bright lights were starting to come from it, shooting towards the shuttle that Dobson and the monsters were driving towards it. It looked a lot like the saucer that had first attacked Swindon back on Earth, except much, much larger, and much deadlier, because there were weapons at dozens of points along its surface, instead of just on the bottom. That saucer, Adam realized, had been made for war, and they were going to need to find some way to penetrate its defenses. Everyone aboard the ship must have realized what a nearly-impossible task that would be. However, barely six seconds had passed before Imhotep got up from his seat with a look of determination on his face, and asked Dobson a firm question.

"How can I go out there?"

* * *

Soon, Imhotep was standing at the door to the rocket's airlock, looking very proud and determined, and only Adam had felt the need to question what he was planning to do.

"Imhotep..." Adam said, his tone of voice almost a pleading one, "I know you don't want us getting killed by that thing, but I don't see why you're doing this."

"After you hid the eye from me, the idea of you in particular getting killed doesn't vex me much." Imhotep merely retorted angrily.

"Just answer my question." Adam replied in frustration, "Why? I mean, it wasn't too long ago that you admitted that one of those aliens got the best of you."

"I was distracted then." Imhotep just replied.

"You mean you're not distracted now?"

"No."

"Not even by your anger at me?"

At that point, however, Imhotep paused, and started glaring at Adam just a little more carefully, as if he wasn't sure how to interpret those words.

"I am the only chance that we have to get past that ship's defenses." Imhotep finally said, "None of the others can survive out there; not even you."

Adam wasn't sure how to respond to that for a moment, because there was no denying the truth of that statement. Still, even when he considered that, there was still one more objection that he felt he needed to make.

"Yes." Adam admitted, "You are our only chance right now, and that's why you can't afford to blow your chances by being careless, or getting overconfident. That's one of the reasons I didn't show you the eye at first; because I was afraid it would ruin our chances to defend ourselves during that last invasion. We need you to be at your best right now. Don't let your hatred of me make you weak."

However, Imhotep was grinning broadly by the time he replied to that statement.

"Make no mistake about it, Adam; I'm still very angry with you for going behind my back like that. However, I have no intention of being defeated by you or anyone else. Anck-su-namun is not worth it, Dobson is not worth it, and you most certainly are not. Still, if all that you want is to see my strength, then I will happily oblige."

In just a moment, Imhotep had stepped into the airlock, and although Adam still didn't feel completely safe, he was much less afraid that Imhotep might lose again, and much more afraid that he might win.

* * *

Before Imhotep even left the airlock, being blown out into space, he'd transformed his entire body once again, into an avalanche of sand; sand that couldn't be asphyxiated in space; sand that moved where he told it to, rather than being effected by the strange absence of gravity that space seemed to suffer from, or the lack of air pressure out there, and soon, his body had begun to resemble a tremendous cloud, traveling towards the alien ship like some huge, stellar wave, and obscuring the rocket from sight as he moved. Still, the aliens clearly recognized that the cloud of sand headed towards them wasn't a natural phenomenon, because their weapons were trained on him in seconds, and had begun firing. However, Imhotep had seen weapons like those several times before, and he was ready for them.

The beams headed towards him almost faster than he could spot, but he could see what direction they were being fired in, and before any of the weapons could hit him, Imhotep shifted the sand that his body was made of into new positions, opening holes in his cloud-like form, through which the beams were passing harmlessly. Ever since his defeat at the hands of the alien robot, Imhotep had been going over the battle in his mind; thinking of ways to overcome the strange weapons of those aliens with his powers, and he was already using many of them as he moved towards their ship with the speed of a hurricane. With every moment that passed, Imhotep wondered if the next one would bring him within reach of the ship, as he continued to move towards it; further and further, but as it turned out, the ship was even bigger, and further away than he'd ever suspected.

Imhotep continued to dodge the alien attacks for quite a while as he flew through space in cloud form, and he wasn't even able to see the curvature of the ship anymore by the time he reached its broad, flat surface. However, the guns on board the alien ship were still firing at him; still forcing him to shift his body into new positions every so often, and yet, attacking those guns was going to be a huge job, considering how far apart they were. In fact, the mummy could think of only one way to attack all of the guns that were endangering the rocket at once, and it was something that he'd never really attempted before.

Slowly, still being careful to avoid being hit by the oncoming beams, Imhotep drove the parts of his sandy body further and further apart, spreading himself out thinner and thinner, across the surface of that ship, until a hundred small clumps of sand had spread across the thousands of feet of space that the alien ship took up. The mummy had separated himself into that many pieces before, but he'd never driven them so far away from one another, and in spite of all the power he'd gained, and all the time he'd spent training himself to remain focused, he found that it was all he could do to keep track of all those parts of himself at once. It was placing an incredible strain on him to just continue executing his plan, but he knew that he couldn't just stop. Even for the sake of the mission, he wasn't sure that he could have pulled all of his pieces back together, while still dodging the alien blasts.

For a moment, out of the corner of his eye, Imhotep caught sight of the sun; its light just passing the rocket behind him, and reflecting off the space ship in front of him, but at last, in the brief moments before those countless sandy chunks came down on the weapons of the alien vessel, Imhotep saw, for just a moment, the way the sunlight glittered off the floating, countless grains of his body, as it spread across the blackness of space, and perhaps it was the strain, but for just a moment, he began to think to himself that it was a beautiful sight, and his thoughts were filled with music when he came crashing down on the alien ship's weapons.

* * *

Adam had been absolutely stunned by the sight, as he'd watched Imhotep move out there. It wasn't just the flashing lights, or the way the light of the sun reflected off of both the mummy and the spaceship, or even the way he was using his powers in a way that Adam had never imagined. Somehow, with all of those sparkling grains, set against the backdrop of space, it almost seemed, for a moment, as though the Egyptian mummy had become a replica of the very stars themselves, and even when the attack began, that barely changed at all. It merely looked as if the "stars" were falling.

The guns on the alien ship fired one last time, just before Imhotep collided with them, and then the light coming from those guns began to scatter like fireworks. Soon, the alien ship seemed to be trying to rotate in place, and that was when Dracula shouted "Now!"

"I see it." Dobson replied, pulling back on a large lever that was right next to the pilot's chair she was sitting beside. Then, in just another second, the rocket shot forward, towards the alien ship, rotating around it at high speeds, even as it tried to turn and attack them with the guns that were still undamaged. For some reason, there was no sign of Imhotep at that point, but they didn't have much time to worry about him. In a moment, the side of Dobson's rocket had begun to latch onto the edge of the alien ship, and the whole thing shook as she pushed some more buttons. Then, there was a tremendous whining noise, coming from right next to the rocket, and Adam had to cover his ears, because it was so painfully loud. Dracula looked irritated by the noise too, though Dobson seemed able to tune it out, although Adam could only imagine what Nancy was going through. However, soon, something happened that nearly made Adam panic. The entire back wall of the cockpit fell away, and the whole side of the rocket retreated into the floor.

At first, Adam had been terrified that those walls would open up into the vacuum of space, but as it turned out, he hadn't needed to worry. Beyond the rocket wall was a mass of metal that had been attached directly to the bulkhead of the alien ship, until it formed an entirely new chamber; still maintaining the same air pressure as the rest of the rocket.

"Barry. Gill-man." Dracula said quickly, turning towards the two with something that looked almost like a grin on his face, "Your turn."

Of course, by that point, those two knew what they were being expected to do. Quickly, Barry started clawing at the alien bulkhead, and in moments, the Gill-man had pried it open with his own titanic strength, revealing a large room within the alien ship, with three big doors, leading into other rooms. However, by that point, Dobson seemed to have seen something that had scared her, because she shouted "Inside! Everyone inside now!"

Nancy and Kong were actually the first ones into the alien ship, immediately moving into an adjoining room through the big, wide opening that the Gill-man and Barry had made, as bright, blue lights flashed across the metal surfaces of the ship's walls and floors. Dracula followed, briefly changing into a wolf as he moved, to travel faster. Barry and the Gill-man seemed to need a moment or two to comprehend the order, but once they'd gotten it, they rushed in, along with the others, and Adam and Dobson brought up the rear. However, the two of them had only just barely gotten out of the ship when the doors leading into the adjoining rooms closed on their own, sealing Adam and Dobson in that room together, and separating them from their other teammates. Furthermore, she looked absolutely terrified, and was starting to punch some commands into the tiny computer that she had attached to her wrist, as if she was desperately trying to escape some vicious enemy. Adam wasn't sure what the problem was, but he could tell that they were both still in a lot of danger, and the biggest potential danger that he could see was the hole in the bulkhead, leading back into the rocket. After all, if someone were to knock their rocket away, that same hole would lead into empty space, and they'd both suffocate.

Determining that that was the problem in an instant, Adam seized the edges of the hole in the metal with his bare hands, praying that he'd be strong enough to do something about it, and started pulling on the metal as hard as he could. It was a strong type of metal; even stronger than the kind that had made up the giants that the aliens had sent to Earth, but Adam knew that he couldn't let that stop him. Soon, it began to give under his muscles, and Dobson had rushed forward to help as best she could, her own armor nearly whining under the strain. At last, with one final shove, the sides of the bulkhead were in place again, and all that was left of the hole was a small crack. However, that was when an enormous crashing noise was heard from just outside the ship, then a loud, hissing sound as air started escaping into space through that one remaining crack in the metal. Both Adam and Dobson rushed back away from the crack at that point, but they still had a chance, he knew, aiming one hand at the metal, as Dobson did the same with her armor. Soon, multiple gun nozzles had emerged from the mad scientist's armor, and Adam's hand was shining with a visible electric charge. Then, as one, they both fired.

The whoosh of flame, and the crackle of lightning both sounded in that chamber just a second later, as Dobson fired jets of intense heat from her weapons, softening up the metal around the crack, and Adam directed the electricity that he'd been generating to do the same. Soon, the crack was sealed, and the mad scientist pulled a small, pill-shaped object from her shoulder-armor, throwing it at the molten slag they'd just created. At once, an intense chill filled almost the whole chamber, and even Adam shivered with the cold as a cloud of steam rose up around the molten metal. However, when it finally settled, the whole wall was starting to look much cooler.

"Don't touch it." Dobson advised Adam cautiously, "It would still burn your hand right off, but at least now it's going to stay in place for a while."

Adam just gave the brilliant scientist a friendly nod at that point, with a slight smile, because he couldn't really think of anything else to do. It didn't sound like the rest of their team was trying to break back into that room, but then again, that might have been Dracula's doing, and it was wise; not trying to open the door to the room which, for all they knew, led into the vacuum of space. For a moment, Adam thought about trying to reunite with them, but he couldn't see any way to re-open the doors that had closed around them. He and Dobson, he realized sadly, were alone in that section of the ship, and although Adam would have preferred to stay in contact with Nancy and Barry, at least, he knew that he had to make do with what he had. At the very least, he decided, the temporary absence of Dracula, Imhotep and the Gill-man might well turn out to be blessings in disguise.

"In that case, I need some idea of what to do next." Adam said sadly, "I don't know much about this ship, I'm afraid, but I think that our first move should be to try to find some kind of map, so that we can locate the others and plan our next move."

Dobson just shrugged, however, when her favorite experiment said that, looking a little helpless.

"If I had some kind of satellite around this ship, I might be able to help you. As it is, the best I can do is design a virtual map as we go along, by measuring the rooms we pass through. That still means we won't know what we're wandering into when we move from one room to the next, though."

At that point, Adam frowned a little. It wasn't the ideal situation he'd been hoping for, but honestly, he still felt safer dealing with an imperfect situation like that, than he would have if he'd been with the rest of the group.

* * *

When the doors had closed and sealed behind the Gill-man, his first movement had been to turn around and try to open them again, but almost at that very moment, Dracula had moved to stop him, and just a short time later, a crashing noise was heard from very nearby; an unholy clamor that sounded like several tons of metal being scraped across the whole side of the ship mercilessly.

The moment that Nancy heard that noise, something in her heart skipped a beat. She knew just what it sounded like, and Dracula must have known as well. It was the sound of the rocket that they'd arrived in being torn away from the side of the alien ship, or else it had been blasted away instead. It made her feel absolutely sick, because she knew that if that had really happened, then Adam and Dobson were probably dead.

Nancy and Kong had entered the alien ship through a large, horizontal hole in the bulkhead that Barry and the Gill-man had made, corresponding to the long, horizontal shape of the ship that they'd arrived in. It wasn't impossible to imagine Adam and Dobson reaching every section of that hole, but it had still been very big, and Adam wasn't Kong, after all. His strength still had its limits. Nancy could barely even imagine that he and Dobson were still alive, and that meant that if they went back into that room, for any reason, they were all likely to die as well. Only a moment later, Dracula had voiced the same concern to Barry and the Gill-man, looking very severe as he spoke.

"I can't let either of you go back in there. That sound was our rocket being blasted away, which means there is now a very large hole into empty space in the next room, and all of the air in that room is gone. Do you want to sacrifice the atmosphere in here as well? Do you want to suffocate in space?"

Nancy felt even worse when she saw the looks on the faces of Barry and the Gill-man. Even Kong seemed to have realized that something very tragic had just happened, if only because of the reactions of those around him, but Barry had probably been Adam's best friend, and the Gill-man had been gradually learning from him. Furthermore, Dobson was the one who'd gotten them all up there in the first place, and without her, they might never be able to get back. Still, the loss of Adam was the biggest for each of them. Dobson was the kind of person who seemed to discourage others from liking her, almost intentionally, and didn't make too many friends. Adam was very different. He actually cared about people.

Still, even Barry and the Gill-man were having very little difficulty understanding the logic of what Lord Dracula was saying. For the moment, at least, going back into that room wasn't an option. Of course, the real question was what to do next. The team's two most brilliant minds had just been snuffed out of existence, and their strongest member also seemed to be missing in action, which meant that at the moment, no one there had more tactical experience than Dracula. For some reason, however, although it made the most sense to let the vampire lord direct their next move, Nancy still felt a bit uncomfortable doing so. He was the leader, and yet, something just didn't feel right there. In the end, though, she decided to ignore how she felt, just like she usually did on missions, and hope that she was doing the right thing.

"So what should we do next?" Nancy asked, biting her lip to keep herself from crying over what she'd just seen. However, it seemed that not everyone was quite ready to move on, because a moment later, Barry turned to face her with a snarl, and cursed at her very loudly. Nancy wanted to start shouting at him; to let him know just how much Adam had meant to her too, but under the circumstances, she knew, they couldn't afford to grieve. The success of the mission needed to come first; just like any other mission she'd ever been on in the past.

Eventually, it was Dracula who responded to Barry with the same bitter scowl as always.

"If you're going to swear, or smash things, or cry like a child, then I won't attempt to stop you. However, if you want to defeat these aliens and save the planet we were born from, then you'll save your mourning for later."

Once again, Barry cursed viciously at that point, following it up with "Heartless tyrant!"

However, Dracula didn't really respond negatively to those insults. In fact, in response to the second, he actually seemed to nod approvingly, as if appreciating Barry's honesty.

"My tyranny is simply a fact," Dracula admitted before long, "as is my lack of a human heart. My course in life is set, and there is nothing that I can do to change it. If you can accept this, then fall into line and do as I say. If not, then stay here and make no attempt to get in our way. Your tears will be nothing more than a decoration for my victory."

For a few moments, it really did look as if Barry was going to start attacking Dracula ferociously, but for some reason, that time, something got in his way, and he started to calm down on his own. Nancy honestly didn't know why, though. After all, Barry's lycanthropy made it much harder for him to control himself when he was feeling angry or tense, and the only reason he'd been able to even join the team was because he'd had the reassurance that Adam was there for him. Even Nancy hadn't really been able to help him. In theory, Adam's death should have undone all of that.

Even Dracula looked surprised when Barry didn't attack, and at last, the werewolf just stood up again, his eyes as cold as the depths of space, and he spoke to Dracula in a very dispassionate manner; to the point of sounding as if there wasn't even a soul left in him.

"When we get back to Earth, we can settle the rest of this, Dracula. For now, let's just kill these scum bags and go back home. I want to get this over with now."

"Indeed." Dracula replied, looking as if he was on the verge of smiling again in response to those sentiments, "Unfortunately, the size of this ship will make it difficult to locate its command center, and we cannot afford to simply smash everything in sight. If this ship is made from nanomachines, like the false invasion ship was, then it would disintegrate around us, and we would all die in the vacuum of space. We need to eradicate the alien presence within this ship, without destroying the ship itself, and the sooner we accomplish that, the better."

"You're saying we should split up, aren't you?" Nancy asked, though admittedly, it did sound like the only real option.

"Yes." Dracula replied only a moment later, "You should remain with Kong, but the rest of us need to begin exploring as best we can, and attempt to get in contact with one another with whatever relevant information we acquire. I can only imagine that being difficult for the Gill-man, however."

"What?" the Gill-man asked, looking a little offended, "Me? Why would it be hard for me?"

"Because Nancy, Barry and myself all possess greatly enhanced senses of hearing," Dracula observed just as calmly as ever, "and Kong is with Nancy. That only leaves you. News that we discover and shout will be known by every remaining member of the team within moments, except you. You'll need to keep informing us of your discoveries as best you can, though I'm afraid that you'll remain largely in the dark until one of us can catch up with you later."

The Gill-man looked a lot less offended by that point in the conversation, but understandably, he also didn't seem satisfied. However, Nancy eventually decided to make a suggestion.

"If you'd like, I can take charge of keeping track of where you all are, and move to locate the Gill-man after a certain amount of time has passed."

However, for some reason, it seemed that the suggestion hadn't been taken well by Dracula, because in just a moment, he was criticizing Nancy's idea.

"Do you really think that you can keep track of all that, and still pay attention to your surroundings if you fall under attack? You should really consider this sort of thing. If the worst possible thing happens, and you need to abandon your alpha plan, what would your secondary plan be?"

"I'd just have to defend myself for a while, then try my best to locate him afterward." Nancy replied without hesitation, however, "It's not perfect, but it's better than being distracted."

However, for some reason, when Nancy said that, a number of strange expressions began spreading across Lord Dracula's face. At first, there was something like disappointment, then rage, then resignation, and finally, a look of satisfaction, as if he was pleased by something she'd said. The worst part, however, was that the vampire was a very good actor. Nancy had only managed to pick up on all of those expressions because she'd grown very observant over the years. However, even she couldn't tell which of those expressions were sincere, and which were a facade, being put up by Lord Dracula in some attempt to fool her. It was a worrying thought, but until she could prove something, she didn't want to be the first real dissenter in the ranks.

"Alright, Colonel." Dracula just replied at last, with a smile that looked a bit insincere, "I just wanted to make sure you'd actually considered that thoroughly. You'd be amazed how many optimists fail to make adequate plans, in case tragedies occur."

That was the end of the discussion. After that, Dracula began handing out orders and instructions, telling each of them, except Kong, which direction they should travel in, as well as giving them a few tips for how to find their way back in case they got lost, but Nancy was already growing more and more worried. It was one thing to fight the alien beings that had been attacking the people of planet Earth recently; beings who were naturally their enemies. However, Nancy was starting to suspect that their own team might not be able to stay in one piece very much longer.

* * *

Klaatu had been reviewing data for the last several days, but every piece of information he absorbed seemed more and more damning. He'd refused to let Andari get involved with the planet Earth, but it had mainly been for his friend's sake by that point. He didn't want Andari to become mired in a real war; to get involved in violence and bloodshed, and lose his innocence. However, Klaatu had never before seen a whole planet full of people who'd had so much, and thrown it away so quickly, for the sake of cheap thrills and illicit pleasures.

As the last piece of Earth's data came to rest in Klaatu's mind, and he removed the connectors from his scanning helmet, he sighed in disappointment one more time. The universe was a hard place to live in; a place where evil would creep in and overwhelm the innocent and guilty alike, if good men showed even the slightest bit of weakness. That was why, in matters of ethics, justice and morality, emotional sentimentality could never have any place, and it was one of the reasons why his people had policed the universe for so long, using robots. They were impressionable people; hardly ever able to separate themselves from their compassionate feelings towards others. Even so, sometimes, hard choices needed to be made, and brutal action had to be taken against evil, for their own protection. That was why the alien knew that his job was both difficult, and very, very important.

Klaatu's power and experience were vast; even overwhelming by human standards, and yet, he'd already seen so much of the humans; the way they'd developed over time; learned to ignore each other's wisdom; to deny universal, objective truth, and even to claim that they had some "right" to do evil... Klaatu knew that his words to the humans would have been like so much dust in the wind. As tragic as it was, the only thing left was for the humans to be swept away, in the hopes that one day, a better, more deserving people would occupy their sector of space.

However, Klaatu still considered it a terrible loss, because he knew that even in spite of all the rampant wickedness and sentimental weakness of modern man, there were still some left who were good and just; some who did their best to fight for truth, and to uphold justice; the faithful remnant who still wanted a standard by which to exalt themselves and others alike. In spite of how much evil there was on Earth, there was still good as well, and it was always a tragic thing when good was destroyed, in order to halt the spread of wickedness. At that moment, Klaatu thought to himself, the only thing he really wanted was some sign of hope for the humans; some glimmer of a chance that they might still be saved from their weakness; that the wicked could be swept away, without taking the good with them. In short, Klaatu couldn't see any means to bring true justice upon the human race, instead of just annihilation. He would rather have killed himself than risk letting the wicked of planet Earth bring their corruption to the stars, but if he could only have found some truly just solution to that problem, he would have taken it without a second thought.

Klaatu continued to ponder those things as he turned on the view screens in his room, monitoring the war factory that Gort and the defense police had sent to the Solar System, and watching as the earthlings moved from one room into the next, most likely thinking that they still hadn't been noticed, even as they pressed further and further into the alien ship...


	24. Chapter 24: Beauty, Beast and Blob

Chapter 24: Beauty, Beast and Blob

* * *

The halls and doorways of the alien ship were actually quite big; large enough for even Nancy to fit through, if she just crouched a little, but for all her talk of shouting to her teammates from all across the ship, using their enhanced hearing to stay in contact, and so forth, it didn't take Nancy long to realize that the idea was impossible. The problem was that she hadn't gotten two rooms away from the others before she discovered that the walls in that ship were virtually soundproof. Even her impressive hearing couldn't seem to penetrate more than one of those walls, and even with only one, she was barely able to hear her allies distinctly at all.

At first, Nancy headed back towards the room she'd just left, but she was the only one who did. It seemed as if the Gill-man hadn't noticed the problem, Barry had either not noticed, or not realized the significance of it, and as for Dracula...

Nancy had some suspicions as to why Dracula hadn't tried to regroup once he realized the walls were soundproof, but for whatever reason, she waited in that room for nearly five minutes, and there was no sign of any of her other teammates; aside from Kong, who was following close behind her, as though waiting to see what she'd do next.

Of course, Nancy didn't like being cut off from her team, and for a moment, she wished silently that Dobson could have given them all some kind of communication device, but then again, there was no guarantee it would have worked in alien territory. However it had happened, they'd been divided from one another behind enemy lines, which meant that Nancy really only had a couple of options. She could either do her best to locate her teammates, or she could just accept the fact that they were separated for the moment, and follow their original plan to continue exploring.

Eventually, Nancy decided on the latter option, not because she felt it was a good plan, but because too much time had already passed, and she knew that locating any of her other teammates at that point was a hit-or-miss gamble at best. In fact, she realized, she might have just as much luck running into them if she headed off in a random direction and kept her eyes peeled, so after a couple of moments, that was what she did, traveling back the way she'd first gone; her large, ape friend following her again with a confused expression on his face.

Nancy and Kong continued to pull open doors and move through hallways and rooms with strange-looking displays along the walls. However, everywhere they went, she was amazed by how deserted the place looked, as if the whole ship had been designed to be almost fully automated. Of course, she could understand why the aliens behind the attack would want to keep their distance from the people they were attacking, but the sheer amount of resources that they were using, and the extremely small amount of actual manpower gave her a nasty feeling. For a moment, she started to wonder if there even were any real living beings behind the attack, or if it was just a completely automated process, and they were its latest victim. It was only one of many possibilities, of course, but it gave her the chills just thinking about it.

Soon, though, Nancy had reached a chamber that was larger than most of the others she'd been through. It seemed to be some kind of intersection, because it had several doors along one of its walls, and again, none of them had signs next to them or anything, to let people know where they led. Of course, she had a feeling that signs in an alien ship wouldn't have been written in English anyway, but even so, it might have given her some point of reference to use in navigating through the place.

However, when Nancy eventually decided to pry open the middle door of that hallway, and pushed her way inside, she realized that in spite of the hard time she'd had navigating the place, she'd just managed to find something very important-looking. It looked a lot like an assembly line of some sort, though it didn't seem to be making things, so much as taking them apart, and they certainly didn't look like parts for invasion robots.

The assembly line had small globs of gel on it; each about the size of a basketball, which were grayish-green with a slightly red tint to them. They passed through the assembly line and into a machine that was about the size of Nancy, which was humming rhythmically. Soon, the blobs emerged from the other side of the machine, a dull gray color, without any trace of green or red in them. Then, just a moment later, they were moved into another machine, which she could see into, and the moment that she looked into it, she was glad that she hadn't tried to reach in there. The blobs were dissolving into thin air in that second machine, as if they were just being taken apart by some technology that Colonel Archer had never heard of before. However, it was becoming very obvious just what they were for, just from the lights, symbols, and the hum of the machine that surrounded them in that colossal room. Those dissolving blobs were responsible for supplying at least some of the ship's power, and if that was the case, then she felt that she needed to find some way to sabotage it.

Soon, Nancy had located a large, metal bar nearby, and started poking one of the blobs with it; one of the ones with the green and red in it. As soon as she did that, however, the thing began moving, as if it were alive; starting to slither up the bar like some ravenous beast.

However, Nancy had been attacked by enough ravenous beasts in her life, that she knew how to react to one. In just a moment, she'd hurled the metal bar into the first machine, and for a few seconds, there was another hum, then a screech, and then finally, something began to happen to the machine.

It seemed that something within the first machine had been effected by the metal bar that had been fed into it, because in just a moment, the conveyer in front of it started to speed up, and there was a sharp hiss, as more and more blobs emerged from the left side of the chamber, and that was when Nancy saw something really bad.

The green and red blobs were coming out of the conveyer faster and faster, and the second part of it wasn't keeping up. However, when Nancy looked carefully into the blobs that were just starting to emerge into the room, what she saw there gave her a gruesome explanation for the red coloring inside of them. There was something that looked like a feline paw inside one of the blobs, being digested within it, until it was nothing but a shapeless, red mass. In the next blob, she saw what looked like a fish's fin, suffering the same fate, then a large antennae of an insect, then some kind of antler. Soon, Nancy had started to realize what was really going on there, but just to be on the safe side, she looked around for another bar until she finally found one, poking one of the dull-gray blobs with it, and ready, at any moment, to toss it into the second machine.

However, the second kind of blob; the dull gray kind, seemed a lot less ferocious, and much more cooperative, and from that, Nancy had already begun to figure out just what the blobs were, and what the machines were doing to them.

In their natural state, the blobs were some form of predatory life, which enveloped and digested other organic matter within themselves, generating energy as they did so. The green tint within them was the chemical that they used to digest their food, which gave them a red tint as well, once it was digested. The first machine, however, removed both, which seemed more or less like de-clawing a cat; preventing the blobs from digesting the organic life that they came into contact with, and turning them into the relatively-harmless gray masses that Nancy saw on the other side of the room. However, the second machine, it seemed, was also needed. Maybe, she thought, the blobs operated a bit like nuclear rods; absorbing energy, releasing it into the alien machine, and then leaving waste behind. In that case, she could understand why they were being vaporized; especially if they were radioactive. Nancy herself had strong resistances to radiation, but most people didn't, and she knew that if her own government could have just vaporized its nuclear waste, it probably would have, which seemed to be what was going on there. That only left her with one question; how to shut the machine down.

Quickly, Nancy started pacing around the room, doing her best to decipher the meaning of the alien interface panels that covered the walls. However, somehow, she knew that not being able to read the alien language, anything she did would really wind up being more trial and error than anything else. Eventually, after punching a few keys, however, she did manage to get the machines to do something, though it was pretty much the exact opposite of what she'd been hoping for.

The first conveyer had been moving faster than the second for a short while, but it hadn't made that much of a difference; it just meant that the gray blobs were clumped into larger balls when they were disintegrated. However, when she'd tampered with the machine, it seemed that the device which poured the recently-fed blobs into the conveyer had broken in some manner, because suddenly, one long stream of red and green-tinted blob, the thickness of a car tire was rushing through the first machine, turning gray as it came out the other side, and growing larger as it collected onto the more slowly-moving second conveyer. Soon, it had gummed up the entrance to the disintegration chamber, which only caused it to balloon even more, eventually spilling off of the conveyer on both sides. Quickly, Nancy struggled with the controls; trying to find some way to undo what she'd just done, but nothing seemed to be working.

By that point, Kong was starting to roar at the growing ooze, and it seemed to have taken an interest in him as well, because it was beginning to slither across the floor in their direction, as Nancy tried to figure out which control panel was meant to handle that kind of emergency. Then again, she gradually realized, it was possible that none of them were. The whole process was automated, after all, and that might have been for a reason.

Soon, Nancy had abandoned the attempt to get the computers on her side, as the gray blob grew to twenty feet wide, still slithering around as though curious. The red and green blobs seemed to shy away from it as it grew, as though its relative harmlessness to living things was somehow harmful to them. However, Nancy knew that she didn't have much time to think about that. She needed to start looking for some means of stopping what she'd started.

Quickly, she'd crossed the room as the gray blob continued to grow, looking for some way to take the machine apart; some means of getting at the inner workings of the second device. However, no sooner had she found a small panel, then she heard Kong roaring even more loudly, and spun around in alarm.

The gray blob had moved forward just a bit, and seized one of Kong's arms in its sticky grip. Before Nancy could say a word to him, however, he'd swung the other arm into it with enormous force, getting that one stuck too.

Nancy could see, to her relief, that Kong's arms didn't seem to be dissolving or suffering any kind of damage from their contact with the blob, but he couldn't get them out either, and he was roaring in rage as the thing continued to grow, traveling up his arms and towards his shoulders and head. However, Nancy knew that she couldn't help him until she could get at the machine's inner workings, so she quickly turned back towards the device and yanked the panel off, then moved towards it again, before losing her balance and falling to the floor with a crash.

Nancy was feeling stunned. She knew that she hadn't just fallen over on her own. Something had tripped her when she'd tried to get closer to the panel, and then, she felt something very thick and heavy climbing up her legs, and realized what had happened, even before she dared to look down.

The gray blob had already spread over Kong's upper arms, but more importantly, the sticky slime had covered Nancy's boots, and was creeping up her legs. In fact, when she'd fallen over, it had almost swallowed her waist, and it was continuing to grow all around her.

Nancy Archer nearly started to panic at that point, because she wasn't sure what to do. It was true that the blob had been de-clawed, and it wasn't able to digest her anymore, but even so, she still needed to breathe, and if it ever started covering her face; that would be it. Worse yet, the blob seemed to be proving that its mass was already greater than theirs, because Kong was being lifted into the air by it, as it covered the huge ape's shoulders.

Nancy struggled with it, but it was already up to her waist, and even with all her strength, she just couldn't move her legs inside that thing. Worse yet, she was still out of arm's reach of the space inside the panel, and the blob was still growing. Ultimately, she knew that she only had one chance, and it wouldn't be comfortable at all.

Quickly, Nancy started swiveling her frozen legs just a little, until she could grab one of the enormous, metal tubes that lined the upper walls of the room; most likely carrying either power or chemicals. Then, hoping that the tube would stay in one piece, Colonel Archer pulled on it with all her might, and was very gratified when she found herself nearly doing a chin-up with it. For a moment, her feet rose into the air too, and the blob's mass had been stretched out a bit further across the room. It didn't seem to have done any damage to the creature, but at least it gave her the leeway she needed to start pulling her way along the walls, and keeping the sticky substance from enveloping her stomach as well. The only trade-off was that from that point on, she needed to support herself with her arms. However, if it would get her close enough to that panel, it would be just enough for her.

Finally, Nancy's fingers closed around the inside of the panel, and there she saw just what she'd been hoping for; two machines; about the size of artillery guns, firing repeatedly into the empty space between them. They were connected to power cables, but Nancy knew what they were for, and soon, she'd grabbed them both. She didn't have a whole lot of time to test them, though. Kong had already been covered by the swelling blob, and it had reached her armpits as well, in spite of her long climb. If those guns weren't the solution to their problems, the two of them were doomed.

Soon, Nancy had buried both arms in the blob, still holding the guns, and fired.

For a few moments, the slime creature had actually started covering Nancy's chin; moving up along her faster and faster, as if realizing the danger. However, it was too late. Both guns had fired into the beast, and if she wasn't mistaken, she thought that she heard a bubble-like whine coming from within it as bright beams of light emerged from her guns, and the creature began shrinking again.

It was slow going, but Nancy made progress, liberating Kong's face from the slime before long; having discovered that the guns weren't harmful to herself or Kong. In fact, it was almost as though they'd been designed to respond only to the blob's unique structure, because they didn't seem to be damaging the surrounding machines either. At last, however, she felt the creature's mass decreasing to less than her own; dropping her back on the floor again, and retreating down along her legs, giving her more room to fire at it. Soon, the once-massive creature was gone, except for the steady stream of it that was still coming out of the machine, being vaporized even as it came, and that was when Nancy Archer knew that if she wanted to put an end to their fight, she had to take it to the very source of that slime.

In a quick sweep, Nancy vaporized the remaining gray blobs, as well as the ones that weren't gray yet, leaving lumps of green and red in their place, then started to fire at the beginning of the conveyer, shooting into the machine that dominated the left side of the room; which seemed to be producing the blobs in the first place. Kong had already begun to strike the thing repeatedly with his fists by that point, but even Nancy had expected there to be a storage tank somewhere, where the blobs were kept. However, it seemed that she'd been mistaken about that, because soon, Kong's huge, bulky arms had seized the whole machine, ripping it right out of the wall, and still, the blobs continued emerging from it.

That, Nancy thought, actually explained quite a bit. The blobs weren't some natural resource or naturally-occurring life-form that had to be stored, fed and disposed of. They were a renewable source of fuel, which could be made by machines, disassembled by machines, and could change biochemical energy into a usable energy source for machines in the meantime. In a sense, however, that greatly simplified what she and Kong had to do.

Soon, Kong had lifted the large, bulky blob-maker over his head, and thrown it to the floor with a crash. Nancy had to keep vaporizing the blobs with both guns, but she soon found a way to use both with one hand, prying open the panel on that machine as well. There, inside the large device, she saw the part responsible for their troubles; a cannister-like chamber, about as big as a car, which seemed to be manufacturing the blobs. With both guns still firing at it; undoing the job that it was doing already, Nancy brought her boot down on the blob-maker, and soon, it was in pieces. The machine had stopped, and whatever function it had been meant to perform was brought to a halt at last.

Nancy and Kong collapsed to the ground a moment later, just looking at one another with confused, dazed smiles. She wasn't sure whether Kong felt the same way she did, but she felt as if half her strength had just vanished over the course of that fight. It had been a tough struggle, and they'd only just barely managed to survive. Still, she and Kong were alive, and they'd made some headway against the aliens who'd been attacking them. She was exhausted, of course, and might need a few minutes to rest before she was ready to continue exploring, but... but...

Just then, as those thoughts were passing through the mind of the giantess, she happened to glance up, and gasped in alarm. Apparently, she and Kong had triggered some kind of silent alarm, because although it hadn't made any noise that they'd been able to hear, the ceiling was coming down on top of them.

The colonel struggled, for a moment, to get her arms up, and find some way to get a decent footing on the ground, but she was too exhausted, and her reflexes were sluggish. The ceiling was still coming down, and the way things were going, it was going to hit her face-first.

However, just then, there was enormous creaking sound; a high-pitched whine, like a machine being beaten in a test of strength and speed, and Nancy looked up in amazement, to see that the metal surface of the ceiling was bent inward in large dents; just above the place where Kong was standing; both arms raised defiantly, and both legs against the floor; determined to hold the ceiling where it was.

When Nancy saw that, something clicked in her mind; something about Kong that she'd always sort of known, but didn't spend much time thinking about. As much of a wild animal as he was, she was the one who gave him the motivation to continue helping out. The sight of her in danger was the reason why he'd had the willpower to get back up and struggle against such a big obstacle.

Nancy had known, for a long time, that Kong found her beautiful, and she'd known that as partners, they had the power to back each other up, but she'd never realized just how much he needed her before. The truth was, that as much as Kong may have enjoyed their matches, that wasn't the main reason why he needed to have her there. Beauty drove the beast on, and hers had been his constant companion for over a decade; reminding him that life was more than just endless struggles; that sometimes, there could be good things in the world as well. No matter what, he wouldn't be willing to ever give that up. King Kong would do whatever he needed to, to protect his most beautiful friend.

In a way, Nancy found that realization flattering; more so than any words could have said, but she knew that she didn't have much time to think about it. Kong was still exhausted, and he looked like his arms were about to give way any minute. Quickly, she scrambled to get her legs into position under her, then reached up with her own arms, struggling against the weight of the ceiling, and praying that the two of them could just get out of that alive; if only to give her the chance to find someone who she could care about like that.

No matter how much Nancy may have liked having Kong around as a friend, and as backup, and no matter how much he may have cheered her up from time to time, she knew that she never could have returned the type of admiration that he seemed to feel for her, and just like that, she knew what had really been missing from her life for the last several decades, and what she really needed to find; the reason why she had to survive that trap, and make it back to Earth in one piece.

* * *

Klaatu frowned as he watched the power go down to one of the main production sectors of the war factory. Somehow, it didn't seem like that attack had been planned or organized by the humans, and he couldn't detect any kind of energy transmissions between them, but it was still becoming clear that they were a threat to the ship, which meant that the monsters of Earth were even stronger than he'd realized.

Quickly, Klaatu started entering commands into the computer terminal in front of him; causing new vibrations in the energy field in both his own ship, and the one near Mars. It wouldn't mean a thing to the humans, of course, but those vibrations would be translated by the ship as computer code; giving him partial control over the it's resources, even from light years away.

Soon, Klaatu could see the readouts on the display in front of him changing. There weren't that many nanomachines on the war factory, and only a ton or so to spare, but that was enough for him. The monsters from Earth had already proven their ability to claim victory over Gort, and the planet incinerators that had been sent to destroy their world. However, the alien's people had encountered many other types of alien life as well; beings whose fighting prowess and sheer power were second to none, and using the nanomachines on board the war factory, Klaatu could create artificial duplicates of the greatest and most lethal warriors that his people had ever seen in their journeys among the stars. Of course, they wouldn't really be anything but nanomachine colonies, but they would fight just as if they were the real thing.

He didn't like having to take that step. In fact, some part of him was still hoping that those monsters would reach the library, and make some attempt to contact him. Still, he knew that he couldn't jeopardize the mission out of mere sentimentality. Very shortly, the monsters on board that ship would be fighting for their lives against the worst enemies that they could ever have faced.

* * *

As the Gill-man had walked through one room after another, yanking open doors as he went, he was genuinely amazed by the sights surrounding him. He was already beginning to feel a little weak from dehydration, and his skin was drying out, but the gift of intelligence that he'd received long ago had increased his appreciation for beauty in many of its forms, and as he passed through one room after another, he had to acknowledge the beauty of the larger chambers in that ship. All of that open space was a good sign, in the Gill-man's eyes, and the lights on the various machines made the sight even more beautiful, though it would have been a prettier room, he decided, if it had been full of water. Still, there was something dazzling about the sight, and he was surprised to find himself feeling that way about it, since he usually preferred a good view of the natural world to the dazzle of machines.

However, just then, the Gill-man noticed something new. It was a sort of scratching noise, which he could hear, not too far away, which was very odd, he thought, because it probably meant that some kind of animal was close by. However, he couldn't imagine what sort of animal would be lurking around inside an alien ship like that one, or how it would survive without any visible plant life, or anything to hunt. On top of that, he couldn't smell it, which was the worst thing by far, because it meant that not only did he have no clue about what it was, but he didn't know which direction it was approaching from either.

Of course, the Gill-man wasn't exactly scared, at the time, having already fought and beaten things much larger and more threatening, but as it turned out, there was something hazardous lurking in there. Something inside of that room was still a danger to the Gill-man, in spite of all the time he'd spent honing his skills in preparation for that battle, and in a flash, it struck.

A large, dark shape rushed out from the shadows in an instant, lunging towards the Gill-man without hesitation or remorse. It was big, alright. In fact, it was even bigger than him, and before it came down on him, and he found himself wrestling with it, the Gill-man was only just able to catch a glimpse of glistening fangs. Then suddenly, he was fighting for his life.

The creature that had attacked the him had a very large mouth, and an even larger snout, and it was very black, and insectoid in appearance. On top of that, its strength was impressive; even to the Gill-man, and it continued to make scraping and clawing noises as it fought with him; some kind of subdued sizzling sound coming from the ground as it moved. At last, a drop of something wet landed on one of his arms, and in a second more, it felt like his whole arm was on fire. Burning pain traveled through the left side of his body for several seconds as he pushed his attacker away, but the Gill-man could already tell that he was suffering severe injuries from whatever the beast had just done to him, because his left hand was lying on the floor, being gradually melted by some type of yellowish-green liquid.

That, it seemed, was where the sizzling sounds had been coming from. The creature that had just attacked the Gill-man was secreting some type of corrosive liquid from its mouth as it fought, and as he'd already discovered, much to his dismay, it was quite capable of eating through his extremely tough hide as if it were nothing. Worse yet, he suddenly found himself with only one arm to defend himself with.

However, the Gill-man had also just finished a brief wrestling match with the strange alien, and he knew that he was the stronger of the two of them. The alien did have an acidic weapon, which was definitely something for him to worry about, but in terms of pure, physical strength, he knew that he could win; even one-handed.

The Gill-man watched his enemy carefully as it sprang back to its feet, and in spite of the speed at which it was moving, he managed to get a better look at it than before. Sure enough, it looked well-armored; almost exoskeletal, like an insect, except with only four limbs, and its head was long and thin; more pole-shaped than round. Its whole body was jet black, and it had a very large number of sharp points; especially its teeth, claws and several spots along its armor, but then the Gill-man noticed something else on its body, which worried him a little bit more. In addition to all of those obvious weapons, the creature had a long tail, which looked very much like some kind of flexible, serrated blade arranged into sections. The thing looked like it would have easily gotten caught on any number of things, but then again, maybe that was the point. As a weapon, there was almost no chance of a tail like that one leaving a clean cut.

Sure enough, much to the Gill-man's dismay, the creature began attacking with its tail almost at once, sweeping it back and forth across the room in very well-controlled arcs, and wielding it more like a scorpion's tail than a whip or flail. In fact, it looked as if every section of that tail was controlled by a separate set of muscles, and the Gill-man found himself needing to struggle hard to avoid its continuing attacks. Worse yet, his struggle to continue dodging was made even more difficult by the fact that there was still blinding pain traveling through his whole body, and one of his arms was still missing. He felt like his body was burning with every second, though the acid had stopped eating away at his upper arm, and his shoulder was still in one piece. The problem was that he could see what the alien creature had in mind next. It was planning to wound him with its tail, then just step in and let its acid finish the job. It wasn't a bad battle plan, he realized, and it wasn't going to be easy for him to escape it. That tail looked very strong by itself, and with all those sharp points all over it, the Gill-man didn't feel like trying to catch it with his hands, so in a moment, he'd devised another plan to fend it off.

Quickly, the Gill-man jumped back towards the wall behind him, and dug his hand into the solid metal, bending the strong substance around his fingers with his inhuman strength. Then, in just another moment, he pulled on it as hard as he could, causing a large chunk of the metal to come off in his hand. The chunk of metal itself was about the size of a car tire, though not quite as thick, and as it turned out, he'd gotten hold of it just in time, because the alien's tail had already begun to cut through the strong metal at almost the very moment when the Gill-man held it up. Then, in a quick motion, he turned the metal plate sideways, causing the sharp points of the alien tail to get caught in the metal. That was the first time when, for just a moment, the alien stopped in its attack, as if unsure of what to do next, and that gave the him his chance to strike.

In a moment, the Gill-man performed the same feat that he'd recently seen Adam use against him; releasing the chunk of metal, then lunging over it towards the alien beast. At first, it just looked surprised when he got past the creature's tail, then even more surprised when he grabbed one of the less-sharp sections of it, and swung the whole creature into the air. The large, black creature's arc through the air continued for several more seconds, only coming to an end when it collided with another nearby wall, but unfortunately, it didn't seem to have been too badly injured by the impact, and if, as the Gill-man suspected, it was intelligent, then it would probably be expecting another attack like that in the future.

Although, for a moment, the Gill-man had had the upper hand, he could tell that his chances against that alien creature were growing slimmer and slimmer, and unfortunately, he was starting to run out of ideas.


	25. Chapter 25: Aliens and Predators

Chapter 25: Aliens and Predators

* * *

When Barry Hammerson had discovered that he couldn't hear his teammates anymore, he'd started trying to use his sense of smell to keep track of them. Unfortunately, after passing through two or three more rooms, he discovered that something was wrong with that too. There was a strange scent filling the area that he was in. He couldn't place it, and it wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was very strong, and he couldn't smell anything else through it.

For a moment, he thought about backtracking; trying to get back out of those strong-smelling rooms and meet up with his teammates again, but he had a feeling that even if it was going to be that easy, they'd probably think of him as a coward for rushing right back to them before he'd discovered anything important or valuable.

The hallways and rooms that Barry had been exploring were much smaller than the ones the group had entered by; no more than a couple dozen feet long in any direction, and most of them seemed virtually featureless; just metal on the walls and a few small interface panels built into them, but there didn't seem to be any doors branching off in new directions, or anything too important going on in any of the rooms that Barry had passed through. However, he finally came to a room with two doors in it, going in different directions. One went straight ahead, and another branched off to the left, finally giving him a choice about where to go next, and it only took him a moment to decide on the left door. Soon, his hands had cut cleanly through the metal, and with one good kick, the door collapsed with a clang, and Barry stepped into the much larger room beyond.

The room looked like some type of manufacturing floor. The walls sparkled with flashes of light, as they were reflected off the large amount of metal in that room, in a variety of shapes. Straight metal plates were passing through that room on some kind of conveyer, as well as some that were curved, and even a few tube-shaped cables and casings. In fact, the whole place looked like a distribution center for robot parts, and that was all that Barry needed to know. That room, he decided, needed to be torn down, one piece at a time.

Unfortunately, there was something else going on in that room, which Barry hadn't noticed at first, and he still didn't notice it until it was almost on top of him; some kind of thin, metal object, headed right for his chest.

Immediately, Barry collapsed to the floor, summoning all the speed he could muster to avoid the strange weapon, then sliding along the floor to try to get out of range, but in mid-air, the disc rotated and headed back towards him again, as if it were homing in on him, and soon, he realized that he had to get up and out of there if he wanted to live.

Barry had only been in a few battles recently, but his lycanthropy had given him a highly-elevated instinct when it came to sensing and responding to attacks, so pretty soon, he rolled over on the floor and leapt back to his feet, just managing the dodge the flying weapon again, and run through the nearest door, back down the adjoining hallway on all fours, with the speed of a full-grown panther. However, when he looked back, thankfully, it seemed that the weapon had stopped following him. He still couldn't tell just where a dangerous weapon like that had come from, or how it had followed him so well at first, but just as he was getting back up to his feet, a flash of blue light tore through the air towards him from just a bit further down the hallway, and he was struck full in the chest with it, being knocked back through the hallway and to the ground in a shower of plasma.

At first, Barry was a little stunned by the suddenness of that attack, but he knew that it hadn't hurt him too badly. He could feel a sort of unpleasant heat traveling through his torso, but it wasn't strong enough to have injured him, and certainly not the scalding sensation that he'd felt when he'd needed to wade through open lava not too long before.

Quickly, Barry started climbing to his feet again, and that was when he felt something very sharp driving through his chest.

For a moment, Barry could barely believe it. Ever since he'd first discovered that he was a monster, it had seemed as if he wasn't in any danger at all anymore; at least not from physical enemies. However, something was finally penetrating his skin, after all that time, and it was invisible to the naked eye, and sharper and more painful than anything that he'd ever felt. In fact, he almost felt as if his very life was being drained away through that invisible, sharp point, even as it twisted around inside of him.

Barry was stunned by his sudden weakness against his unseen enemy. In fact, he was so stunned, that for a moment, he couldn't think of any way to react, but soon, he realized that if he didn't do something quickly, he was about to die, and as hard as his life had always been up to that point, he knew that he wasn't ready to face judgment yet. There was still too much that he needed to do; too much that he needed to make right.

Quickly, Barry reached forward and seized the object that was still inside of him, pulling it back out of his chest with all his might, then yanking it up towards the ceiling. In a fraction of a second, the creature that had been holding the weapon released it, seeming to recognize Barry's supernatural physical strength, but just then, the weapon became visible in his hands, and he found himself with more questions racing through his mind as he looked at it.

The weapon was a pole of some kind; thin and lightweight, but very strong. It was just slightly longer than a cane, but with a sharp point on the end, and when Barry looked a bit more closely at that point, he realized why it had hurt him so badly. There was a light coating over the blade of that weapon; a reflective, metallic coating that was obviously silver. He hadn't seen much silver in his life, but he already knew that much about his own weaknesses. A weapon that small never would have been able to hurt him so badly unless it could take advantage of his weakness.

However, even as Barry glanced at the stick in his hands, he saw the glint of metal in front of him, and realized, in horror, that the flying, metal weapon had reappeared, and it was most likely going to be covered in silver too.

For a moment, Barry wasn't sure what to do, but at last, he reacted with the staff, swinging it into the path of the flying weapon; which, it turned out, was shaped like a small disc, and soon, he'd just managed to knock the disc out of the way, running back towards the robot part room. However, he hadn't gone more than a few yards, when something very sharp dug into his leg, and he found himself falling over on the floor. In seconds, the strange spear had vanished from his hands, and that was when Barry realized the truth. Although his physical strength may have been superior to his enemy's, his foe just had too many advantages over him. His invisibility, his technology, and especially his sheer skill in combat were all devastating problems, and as strong as Barry may have been on Earth, that alien hunter was practically walking through him. With every second came a new threat to his life, and it was all that he could do to continue surviving for just a few more seconds. He was losing ground fast, and he still had no reliable way to attack his enemy, or to anticipate where the next attack would come from.

Barry was feeling absolutely helpless by that point, even as he struggled to get back up and dodge the flying disc one more time. He knew that the hunter was still somewhere nearby, and could probably finish him off at any moment, and it made him feel worse than he ever had before. Whether he liked to admit it or not, he'd never given up on the people he knew back on Earth, and he'd never believed that Adam Frankenstein could die as easily as Dracula seemed to think he had. Barry was sure that there were still people in the universe who knew him and cared about him, and in that moment, he realized, he would have given almost anything to just be able to unleash his full powers again; just one more time, like he had against the avenger of Thoth.

Still, what he really wanted wasn't just to unleash the power. What he really wanted was to be able to truly be in control of it, and that was when something else occurred to him; something that, for some reason, Barry had never thought of before. Quickly managing to duck out of the way of the flying disc one last time, he moved into the robot part room and looked around. There, he saw something that finally gave him just a bit of hope.

Apparently, Barry had been traveling upward through the space ship as he'd run, because the light that had been reflecting off the metal in that room wasn't coming from any of the nearby machines. Almost the whole ceiling of that room consisted of some kind of thick, transparent substance, and beyond it was the vacuum of space. However, there, just a short distance from the massive, alien ship's window, he could see the source of the light; an enormous chunk of rock out in space. He couldn't even tell how big the rock chunk was, but they were close enough to it, that the sight of it filled almost the whole ceiling window, and although the young werewolf had never been big on astronomy, he knew what it must have been; a moon of Mars.

Quickly, Barry spun back around towards the room's entrance, as he felt the moonlight washing over him; causing the natural energy within him to weaken, and bringing out the primal enchantment that he'd been infected by for the last several months. It wasn't nearly as strong as it had been during the attack of the avenger of Thoth, but he could feel it acting on his mind already; wearing away at his self-control. Bestial thoughts were intruding into his head again; instinct and bloodthirsty cunning taking the place of intelligent thought. However, as much as he wanted the power of his true form to use in fighting that enemy, he wasn't willing to give in to it either. He refused to let his werewolf side win, just because he was in danger, and the wicked, savage thoughts creeping through him were met with active resistance.

Barry could still feel his body changing around him; his nails turning into claws, and his face being warped into the head of a wolf. Fur was growing all over his body too, but just that once, he could feel, the savage beast within himself was weakening; having difficulty overwhelming his intelligent thoughts. Werewolf or not, Barry Hammerson was still human, and, he discovered, having realized what the problem was, and committed himself to solving it, he still had the legacy of humanity; his own free will.

The flying disc appeared again in the doorway, spinning towards the werewolf through the air, but his transformation was nearly complete, and while the wicked thoughts of lycanthropy hadn't overwhelmed him that time, he could still feel the sharp instincts of the ferocious beast within him, longing to react to the attacks of his enemy. For the moment, he decided, he was going to let them do just that.

With one quick motion, Barry snapped out with his jaws, seizing the flying disc between his teeth, then whipped his claws around, and sliced it into four separate pieces, tossing them to the ground in one motion. He still couldn't quite see his enemy, but he could tell that he'd surprised the invisible hunter, because with his recently-sharpened senses, he could hear the alien's light footfalls on the ground, moving back just a little.

That was just what Barry needed. Up to that point, the enemy had been disguising its scent as well as its appearance, and it moved very quietly, but not, he realized with a smile, completely without noise. Since his transformation into his more powerful form, the young werewolf's sense of hearing had sharpened noticeably, until he could hear the sounds of those light, careful footsteps on the metal beneath them both. Soon, he'd gotten back onto all fours, and started charging across the room towards his opponent, picturing the enemy in his mind, and using his sharp hearing almost like a sonar. The shape of his enemy was a bit surprising, at first, but he didn't hesitate, pouncing on the alien and lashing out with his claws.

The enemy reacted quickly to Barry's attack, slashing against him with some weapon of its own, and unfortunately, he still couldn't quite hear the sound of that weapon traveling through the air, so he was struck across the chest by it. Worse yet, it seemed that that weapon was also laced with silver, because Barry could feel the wound burning on his chest, draining his strength, even once he'd backed away. It was a difficult situation, because he knew that he'd wounded the enemy somehow, and yet, they were in something of a standoff. He'd proven that he could defend himself from his enemy's long-ranged weapons, which neutralized one of the big advantages that the invisible alien had over him. However, his short-ranged weapons were just as lethal, and the alien was very adept at using them. Worse yet, the werewolf still couldn't anticipate where those attacks were coming from, even when he was standing right next to his enemy. It was only at that point, that he started to do the one thing that his purely-werewolf form never could have done; he came up with a plan.

Quickly, Barry rushed across the room towards the place where the conveyer belt was located, though the alien didn't seem to be making any movements in response. However, whether that was meant to keep it from being heard, or just because it didn't see what the werewolf was planning was impossible to say. Then, in only another moment, Barry Hammerson had reached up towards the giant conveyer, seizing one of the metal plates that was passing by on it; as big as a wagon wheel, and lifting it over his head. It seemed to be only then that the alien realized the danger, because he could already hear the hunter's footsteps as it started running to one side of the room, apparently trying to hide. Still, ironically, that only made it easier for Barry to tell where he was, and in just a moment, he'd thrown the metal plate with all his might like an enormous discus, and seized another one from the conveyer a moment later, even as the sound of metal tearing through metal drowned out every other noise in the room.

Thanks to the sheer size of the weapon that Barry had just thrown at his invisible enemy, and the speed with which he'd thrown it, it crashed right through several walls and machine parts during its flight. Scaffolds, power cables and access terminals all collapsed into heaps of metal under the force of the huge plate that he'd just thrown at his enemy, but the werewolf could tell that the invisible alien had survived, and was using the racket as cover, because in all of that noise; the outline of his enemy's body was easy to sense, and at that point, the alien hunter was approaching from his right, as if trying to get in one good jab against him with that silver-laced spear again.

In that moment, Barry had just a little bit of time to plan out his next move. Soon, he realized, he'd have another skirmish with his opponent on his hands, and if he lashed out with his claws, then he'd probably do a lot of damage, but his enemy would also have time to react, and he was sure that getting gutted with silver too often wasn't good for his health. On the other hand, he had another means of attacking, which probably wouldn't do as much damage, but would leave his enemy with less of a chance to respond.

As the hunter approached, Barry whipped his head back and forth, as if struggling to determine his enemy's new location, but then, just when the alien was nearly within striking distance, he swung his second metal plate around like an enormous club, knocking the alien hunter clean off his feet. To his credit, he managed to keep his hands on his spear when he was flung into the air, because the young werewolf didn't see it appearing on the floor, which almost definitely would have happened if he'd let it go. However, when he did finally land on the ground again, it seemed that something very important had been damaged during Barry's last attack, because for the first time, the creature's near-total invisibility faltered, and he could see the shape of its body, just starting to materialize in front of him.

The creature's body shape was surprisingly humanoid. It had two arms and two legs, just like a human, though most of the other features of its body were very different. Its forehead was large and flat; looking exoskeletal and armored, as if to protect its vital points, and beneath that forehead were a pair of sunken-in eyes, and beneath those, a series of mandibles, covering a mouth with lots of sharp teeth. Long, thick strands of some black substance resembling a cross between tentacles and hair surrounded the armor on top of its head. Of course, from its appearance alone, there was no doubt that it was an alien being, but it certainly didn't seem like the kind of alien that had landed in Washington during the fifties.

In fact, Barry was fairly certain that he'd seen that alien somewhere before; some internet rumor mill claiming to have photographs from a nineteen-eighties encounter with extra-terrestrials that had been dubbed "predators" by the team that had first encountered them. Still, from everything he'd read about them, they didn't seem like the type to send giant death machines to destroy the Earth. He couldn't prove it, exactly, but he suspected that the being in front of him wasn't a real predator at all.

In just another moment, though, Barry got his proof, because the alien being had begun to melt before his very eyes, gradually turning colorless and malformed, as it became a pile of some kind of gray dust, proving that it had just been a construct of some kind, using the same kind of colorless material that the first alien ship had been made from.

For a few moments, Barry thought about trying to gather up some of that dust; to figure out how the ship around them had replicated another kind of alien warrior with it, but in that moment, he realized something that nearly overjoyed him. After all the time that he'd spent around Adam; all the time he'd spent thinking about ethics, and about the people he cared about, and all the effort he'd put into learning new methods of self-control over the last few weeks, he'd not only learned to control his fully-transformed state, but had actually begun to regain the personality he'd had when he was younger; the curious, young man with a love for computers and animals, who'd been so eager to learn about the world. For a while, he'd lost that eagerness in the flood of bloodthirsty, carnal emotions that his lycanthropy had brought on him, but in spite of his former meekness, Barry Hammerson had reasserted himself, and the struggle had made him a bolder and more decisive man in the process; to say nothing of being far more powerful.

He couldn't stop smiling at that thought, as he gripped the conveyer belt in both hands, and pulled with all his might, watched in brutal delight as the whole machine came crashing down. He was both a werewolf and a human, and for the first time, he realized, he was beginning to feel the joy of both forms in his heart; something that no one of human descent had ever accomplished before.

* * *

The Gill-man had been repeatedly buying himself more and more time by tearing pieces out of the walls and throwing them at the alien, but it kept getting closer and closer to him, regardless. Eventually, he'd needed to use one small piece of metal to swat the alien's face away from him, though he was forced to discard it just a moment later, before the alien's acid could erode the metal away completely. No enemy had pushed the Gill-man so completely to the brink of death, and yet, he could see one major advantage that he had over that alien beast, aside from his sheer, brute strength. Its acidic body fluids had their down sides as well as their advantages.

In another moment, the Gill-man seized one more metal plate off the nearest wall. His arm had already regenerated down to the elbow, but he still couldn't use it to grab anything, and that meant that he needed some other means of defending himself against his enemy. Soon, he'd struck it in the face with another metal plate; more of the strong acid starting to melt the metal, but that was when a new plan occurred to him.

Quickly, he tipped the melting metal plate over in his hands, spilling the strong acid onto the floor as he circled the alien creature to the left. Then, ducking out of the way of another swipe of its tail, he stomped hard on the ground, and grinned in satisfaction as various sections of the floor began to give way; including the one right under the alien. In one quick jolt, the beast was falling towards the floor below, and the Gill-man backed up just a little bit more, leaning against the nearest complete wall. It probably wouldn't take that jet black creature long to track him down again, but at the very least, he'd bought himself some breathing space, and a chance to do just a little more regenerating and preparing for the moment when he'd need to fight that thing again.

Thirty seconds passed, and the Gill-man's arm had regenerated all the way down to the wrist. Another twenty seconds, and he had usable fingers. Out of combat, he found, he wasn't using up as much of his energy, and could regenerate quite a bit faster. He still wasn't quite back up to full speed, but for the moment, it was enough. The Gill-man could tell that he had a major advantage over the alien, which was his ability to bend and twist the surrounding metal. He hadn't been able to make much use of it at first, but having access to the use of both arms changed quite a bit about that.

Just as the tips of the Gill-man's fingers and claws finished regenerating, he made another move, seizing large sections of the surrounding metal right off the walls, and bending it; squashing it with his fingers like clay, until it had been forced into a new shape; a long, sharp shape. He did the same thing a couple more times with all the speed he was able to muster, then twisted the ends of the metal around a length of cable that he found in one corner of the room; which shut off all the shimmering lights nearby when he pulled it out of its housing. However, it was just thick enough to tie his new weapons to his body; functioning as two separate belts; one on his waist, and the other across his shoulders. Once he was done with that, he'd managed to sculpt three weapons for himself; two makeshift long swords, and a large, javelin-like weapon. After he was done with that, though, he didn't have long to wait before his enemy made another appearance.

The alien creature came charging through the door towards him; its pounding feet making a tremendous racket as it moved, and the Gill-man had to think fast as the thing started to engage him from a distance with its tail again. He'd seen that its saliva was strongly acidic, and he knew that that was a bad sign, because it meant that most weapons might not be able to go all the way through it, unless they were wielded with enormous speed and force. It was possible, in fact, that nearly all of its bodily fluids were acidic in nature, and if that was the case, then wounding the creature might easily serve to make it a more efficient killing machine. He knew that he needed to prepare for that possibility, but there was no other way around the problem.

The creature's tail had swung around before half a second had passed, but that time, the Gill-man actually jumped over it, drawing both of his new swords in a flash, and slicing off the end of that tail from almost directly above, vaulting himself to the side with his second sword. Sure enough, it looked as if the acid not only filled the creature's whole body, but was highly pressurized within it, because it shot out in a quick jet from the end of its tail, hitting the opposite wall, and spilling all over the floor; making an enormous gash where the acid melted the metal, all across the room. However, such high blood pressure, the Gill-man reasoned, might have other unfortunate advantages. It might mean that it would take the alien creature much longer to bleed to death.

Sure enough, it seemed that the creature was barely suffering at all from its wound, and was even trying to use it as a weapon, swinging the deadly acid back and forth across the remainder of the room's supports. However, the stream of acid was starting to die down, because while it was still pouring out of the creature's tail, it was no longer shooting all the way across the room, and like a fire hose that's lost its force, the Gill-man saw weakness in that.

His first sword had already begun to melt, so he put away his other sword, made another leap over the alien's tail, and charged toward its body with all deliberate speed, finally seizing it by the arms, and lifting it into the air. The thing tried to spit at him for a moment, but he managed to duck out of the way and ram its head back with his shoulder, then slam the alien against the wall. Soon, he'd driven his remaining sword through the creature's left arm and into the flat, metal surface behind it. The sword and wall both began melting immediately, but it gave the him the chance he needed to use his javelin, positioning it right over the beast's chest, and although the alien being tried its best to resist with its one remaining hand, the Gill-man was simply too strong. Soon, the javelin had gone through the alien creature's body, and the half-fish moved further away from it, feeling a little relieved, but not much.

The alien creature had convulsed quite a bit in response to the javelin in its chest, but that was only its death throes, and the only real danger to the Gill-man by that point was the remaining acid. Still, he'd dodged it while the creature had been alive, and when it died, that job didn't become any harder.

Soon, the alien had stopped moving completely, although it didn't take long for the acid spilling from its body to eat through the floor again, causing it to once again plummet into the room below, and from there, into the room below that. The Gill-man was very hungry, and extremely tired, but somehow, he knew that something very bad was about to happen in that room, so he quickly yanked open the next door, and stepped through into the room beyond. As it turned out, however, he was just barely in time.

The moment that the Gill-man had entered the room beyond the acid-melted one he'd just been fighting in, there was a tremendous blast, and he found himself being shoved back with the force of a wind tunnel. Quickly, straining against the wind, he jabbed his claws into the nearest wall, and started climbing towards the door to the next room; the sudden blast of wind still pulling him almost directly sideways, until at last, the door behind him sealed shut, and the wind blast stopped. However, he still wasn't safe, because that was when the he noticed that he couldn't breathe, and realized that somehow, all the air had just been blown out of the room.

The Gill-man wasn't sure how it had happened. He didn't know, and he didn't really care to know. All that mattered, for the first time, was getting back to a breathable atmosphere. After all, even his gills didn't give him the power to breathe in space. Trying to hold his breath as best he could, he continued towards the next door. However the air had vanished, he was in an enclosed room, and if he could just reach the next enclosed area, there would probably be some air in there. It had been a long time since he'd been so tired, hungry and dehydrated all at once, but he knew what he had to do next, and inch by inch, he forced himself closer to the door, bracing his arms against it, and pushing with all his remaining strength.

At last, the Gill-man was nearly knocked backwards to the floor, when the door opened, and the air rushed in. He was still tired, hungry and dehydrated, of course, but at least he could breathe again, and after taking just a few moments to steady himself, he got back upright and continued his journey through the hallways of the enormous spacecraft.

* * *

Klaatu frowned as he looked over the reports he was receiving on-screen. Of all the functions of the war factory, only seventy-five percent of them were still active, and two of the nanomachine warriors had already fallen. Worse yet, it seemed that not one of Earth's warriors had actually died, and some of them were already heading for even more sensitive and important areas of the interstellar ship. Two, in particular, were headed towards the library, and another for the communications hall. The damage they could do to the ship in those areas was minimal, of course, but if they were really clever, they might be able to contact any number of people from them; any number of alien forces, who might be easily upset by a careless word spoken by a foolish Earthling.

The battle wasn't going well for the war factory, and as much as he hated to be forced into that kind of situation, he knew that he didn't have any choice but to actually try to communicate with some of Earth's warriors; if only to buy Gort and the war factory a bit of time. The evils of planet Earth, he was discovering, were stronger than he'd anticipated.

* * *

Lord Dracula was already smiling to himself as he stepped into the large room at the end of the last hallway. His strength hadn't quite been enough to open the sealed doors all the way, but an application of just the right amount of heat and pressure had made tiny cracks in each of those doors; cracks just large enough for him to squeeze through when he shrunk himself down to his smallest size. He'd completely lost track of his teammates almost as soon as he'd started exploring the alien ship, but in a way, he didn't really care. He'd been hoping to plan things out a bit more concretely than that, but beggars couldn't be choosers, after all, and the next room did look very useful to him.

The room was a tremendous hall; a good hundred feet high, and as many wide, with interface consoles arranged throughout the entire thing, and enormous view screens scattered through the room. Obviously, it had been intended for multiple-way communication of some kind, although what really caught Dracula's attention, for the moment, was the man standing in the middle of the room with a smile on his face. He was a very strange-looking man, because he was dressed in some kind of military uniform, and yet, it was impossible to ignore the almost predatory look in his eyes.

"Welcome to the communications hall." the man said with a trusting smile, "Can I help you with something?"

For a moment, Lord Dracula just paused in genuine surprise, but at last, he decided that there was no point in postponing the inevitable.

"You're not a real human being." Dracula said at last in open derision, "I'm certain, because your blood has no scent. In fact, I would wager that it's not even real blood at all."

For a moment, the man in the uniform just looked aggravated, but at least, he seemed to realize that he couldn't take the vampire by surprise, and in that moment, something began to happen to him, which actually did surprise Dracula, even after all he'd seen.

The uniform began to warp around the man, and the man's body started warping as well, changing into a new shape as it moved. In seconds, the whole uniform had melded into a vast, fleshy mass, which started to sprout arms and long, spidery legs as it moved. Soon, it had become a tremendous, fast-moving, insectoid creature with a mouth and face like a human being, and as soon as he saw it, Dracula smiled.

"I see." the vampire said confidently, "You were that thing that attacked those poor fools in Antarctica a while back, or maybe you weren't. Maybe you're another of its species. Maybe you're nothing more than a replica of it, but in any case, I wonder what you plan to do to me. After all, I am not a living creature. I've read the reports and the rumors; you multiply and grow stronger by assimilating life-forms. If that's true, then you cannot hurt me in the slightest. At least not in your current form."

However, in another moment, the monstrous beast lunged forward, stretching its mouth to the size of a car, and Dracula just smiled confidently as he was carried up into its mouth, surrounded by its razor-sharp teeth, and found himself descending into it, as its body surrounded him from all sides...

* * *

The thing had suspected that Dracula was just another life-form; perhaps a bit different from other forms of life, but still basically alive. It had suspected that vampirism was just some kind of disease, or something that could be naturally explained and overcome with just the right approach, but the more its cells transformed around the vampire lord; doing its best to assimilate him into its own structure, the more it found that there was an enormous force, resisting it from within. Something was protecting Dracula from being absorbed by it, and as far as it could tell, the vampire lord hadn't even made any attempt to counter-attack or escape yet.

However, that changed just a moment later, as the thing felt a blinding pain starting to branch out from within its center, changing into a burning sensation as it spread outward. It was unbearable and excruciating, and at the last second, the thing realized its mistake, just before its entire body burst into flames.

* * *

Every last piece of the shape shifting alien was consumed in the inferno that followed. Its whole body collapsed into blazing embers on the deck of that communications hall, and as the flickering flames of that simple victory danced across the room, their light was reflected in the eyes of the one responsible, who stood in mid-air, held aloft by mere heat pressure, as he turned back towards the center of the room, his long coat sweeping around behind him as he went. Lord Dracula had not expected to be so badly underestimated by his enemies.


	26. Chapter 26: Betrayal From Within

Chapter 26: Betrayal From Within

* * *

Adam and Dobson had been traveling through the alien vessel fairly slowly at first, moving through the rooms one at a time, as Dobson used the computers in her armor to map out the alien ship that surrounded them. Still, Adam had sometimes run ahead and scouted the next few rooms, giving Dobson their descriptions and dimensions; which made the exploration go a bit faster. At last, however, they'd found themselves opening the door into a very small room, which had just a few computer terminals of some kind lined up along its walls, and just enough room for the controls, as well the the person operating them. In fact, it looked more like a closet with computers than a room, so Dobson had gone into it alone, quickly hooking things up to the computers, turning them on, hooking more things up to them, entering commands into them, and so forth. It must have been a huge job, getting those computers to do anything for her, but then, she did have some past experience with the technology of those aliens, which may have helped her learn more about those interface terminals.

At last, Dobson started grinning, then smiling openly as she punched in more commands and started to remove pieces of her own equipment from the device in front of her, plugging them back into her armor. Just a second later, she left the computer area with a broad smile, as if she'd just learned something very valuable, and turned to Adam quickly.

"These computers are hooked up to some kind of library in the center of the ship. It's got all kinds of information, though I guess I'm not sure what to look for. I wish I had enough time and storage space to download everything in it, but the alien computer's much too big."

However, there was one term that Adam had heard recently; a term he wasn't too familiar with, which he wanted to learn a little more about, so in just a moment, he'd squeezed himself into the library interface closet, located the microphone-like device, similar to the one he'd seen inside the "planet incinerator," and spoke a single word into it.

"Daerlin."

"Ga'da Kien." the computer replied, displaying a long list of symbols on the screen, none of which Adam recognized, but as he got near the bottom of the list, he started finding human letters; most of which were based on the roman alphabet, and those letters spelled out the names of Earth's languages; all the ones that Adam was familiar with, as well as quite a few he hadn't heard of. Quickly, he selected "English," and in just a moment, a stiff-sounding computer voice spoke up, as a video played in front of him.

"In 413 G.A., during the early days of the Galactic Alliance, one of the major alliance worlds; Harr, began changing. Its people were weak-willed, but very prolific, and because of the latter trait, they were a welcome addition to the Galactic Alliance. Unfortunately, a new philosophy began to sweep across their world before long; effecting many of them; a hierarchical belief system, where power and possessions of any kind could simply be seized from those in a lower class of society."

"To justify this belief, the Harrans convinced themselves that divine providence established rich and poor, and that rich people were meant to have unrestrained access to the possessions of the poor, because of the power they'd been given. This belief system was a very weak one at first, but it began to slowly spread among the upper classes, until nearly the whole planet was consumed by it. Even so, the Galactic Alliance waited a long time before severing ties with the Harrans. By the time it was decided that the marauding lifestyle of the Harrans could never have any place in the Galactic Alliance, it was too late."

"From the planet Harr, there came an invading force; unique in its character, since this force consisted of only three individuals, in three separate ships. They were the first of the daerlin, and they had, it seemed, gained some kind of strange power, which matched the advanced weapons of the Galactic Alliance in sheer strength."

"Further research into the backgrounds of these three individuals indicates that all three were rich, all three had uncovered and used sorcery for quite some time during their lives, all three had been bloodthirsty savages while they were alive, and all three died before leaving the planet."

When Adam heard that, it sent a jolt of worry through his heart, because those traits reminded him of someone very familiar. In fact, they reminded him of a couple people he knew. Still, the recording continued.

"In death, they were a greater threat than ever. One of them invaded an alliance communications ship and attacked the people on board. Nearly two hundred died in that attack, and twenty-seven of them rose again as daerlin."

"At the time, the threat still seemed minimal, but six warships were sent to deal with it, along with another communications ship, to sever ties with the Harrans. However, the outcome of that encounter was devastating."

"Every last person aboard all seven of those ships died over the course of the next thirty hours, and every last one was reborn as a daerlin. Furthermore, six of our warships were in their control by that point, and a large part of the population of Harr had already become daerlin. Soon, they were using their new ships to travel to other planets, and had begun to transform those they found on those worlds, like a supernatural plague."

"By the time the daerlin had claimed three worlds, all-out war against them was finally declared, but even so, the battles went very poorly at first, because alliance troops made the mistake of engaging them in combat directly. The daerlin had powers very different from any alien race; powers that seemed to defy the laws of science and reason, and there were direct engagements of daerlin, where the odds were more than a hundred to one against them, and yet they still survived the fight, swelling their forces with our own."

"Only a few effective methods of fighting the daerlin were ever discovered, and most of them took place on a planetary scale. A few of the weaker ones were vulnerable to fire, but that was never guaranteed to be effective. The vacuum of space could destroy them. Only a tenth of them could survive a large-scale disintegration bomb, and less than one percent of them had the sheer power needed to survive the utter destruction of their planet."

"For this reason, the androids known as the galactic police force were developed; not simply to protect our people from engaging in war, or causing death, but to prevent any further spread of the daerlin contagion across space. Androids were impervious to all forms of contagion, and could wield technology just as well in war as our best champions could; developing creative solutions to the powers of the enemy when necessary, and receiving minor input from us during the rare instances when their creativity proved insufficient."

"The war continued for two centuries after that, and six more worlds fell to the daerlin, until finally, the infected worlds had been incinerated by the android police force, and the last confirmed daerlin had been destroyed. Over half of the galactic alliance had perished in the war, and that was when our people knew that from that moment on, we could never afford to show weakness again. We could be kind and merciful at times, but we could never allow it to endanger the intergalactic peace, because that had been done on Harr, and it had nearly destroyed us all."

"Since that time, the daerlin have made a few more appearances, on one planet or another, sometimes even consuming an entire world here or there, but these worlds have always been planets of extremely primitive technology, without even the simple power of space flight; planets of barbarians, who, tragically, destroyed themselves through their simple lack of commitment to doing right; the apparent cause of the daerlin infection."

With that, the display ended, and after just a moment, Adam decided to listen to one more file; the file on planet Earth.

"Earth." he said into the computer, and immediately, there was an image of his own planet; the third planet of the solar system. However, that image didn't stay on the screen long, before the computer began describing very general information about the Earth's different animal kingdoms, different types of plants, natural elements and so forth, so Adam decided to clarify his information search just a little.

"Earth society."

However, even that didn't seem to help. The computer started with common themes between the many different societies of Earth, past and present, and moved on to the differences between the continents and so forth, so Adam tried one last thing; stringing words together like a search engine, and hoping that something would come up.

"Earth society, daerlin and Klaatu."

However, in response to those search parameters, a brief list of files appeared. Still, that search had been helpful, because those files seemed to be relevant, and a couple of them were the ones that Adam had seen already, aboard the metal giant known as the planet incinerator. Still, there was one more file there, which read "path of Earth society towards the daerlin menace." It had apparently been made by Klaatu, though he wasn't in the video that came up when Adam clicked on it.

"Earth has never truly been united." the computer voice began, "However, its people seemed like they might have been on the path to discovering the truths of right and wrong, and suppressing the voices that sought personal pleasure over responsible living. Many threw their lives away, following a false philosophy of wickedness into battle; killing and being killed by the thousands, but even so, the strongest force on planet Earth, for quite some time, was also the most upright; the force that prized charity, and the rights and duties of each person. For over one thousand years, this force held onto its strength across most of Europe, and even began spreading into large sections of Africa and Asia."

"Unfortunately, it was not to last. Some were discontented with this way of thinking, and began to sew dissent among the righteous, and a hesitation in responding to these malicious individuals led large sections of this stronghold of European morals to fall apart. Soon, a new philosophy was growing on Earth; a philosophy that said that nothing was true or false; good or bad, except what each individual wanted in the short term; a period that many of the humans refer to as 'the enlightenment.'"

"The beliefs that 'the enlightenment' gave birth to soon spread across the world, causing further division and corruption among the humans, and with no clear, established standard of right or wrong to rely on, they could do nothing to prevent it. Revolutions took place, founded on the desire for freedom and brotherhood, but in sometimes less than a decade, those dreams would be forgotten, and a new, more power-hungry tyrant would seize control."

"Soon, new continents were discovered, and conquered single-handedly by masses of European settlers, all taking with them the belief in subjectivism which had opened them up to so many horrors already, and soon, they were embroiled in civil war. However, the evil continued to grow among them. Soon, the whole world was at war, then a second world war was born from the discontent over the first. Every time, more and more death would result, as technology pushed forward, until humans finally reached up into space, and the emissary Klaatu came down to study them."

"Klaatu found the humans still embroiled in their terrible confusion over the very nature of right and wrong. Wickedness abounded, without any accepted standard to hold it back, and yet, Klaatu discovered words written into one of their monuments, which gave him some hope for the human race; the words of a man named Abraham Lincoln. Those words proved to him that some human beings had wisdom."

"Klaatu did not, at the time, have the resources to perform a full evaluation of man's works, nor had human beings sufficiently cataloged their works and history in a method that could be scanned, so he decided that in spite of the personal danger that he'd been in while on Earth, he would give the humans more time to consider their approach to the alien worlds, which they'd recently become aware of, and to get their own affairs in order. He left the human race after a short time, with one strict ultimatum, however; one demand that represented the very limits of his own authority."

At that point in the video, however, the brief scenes and descriptions cut off, and an image of Klaatu himself appeared again, speaking aloud as he stood near his saucer-shaped vessel, and looking out sternly over the people gathered around him. Those people seemed to be human, and there was a tense atmosphere of fear covering that group, though Adam couldn't tell much else about them, since most were keeping their distance from the alien. His words seemed to ring out to the people gathered there like the toll of some mighty church bell.

"I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all, or no one is secure. Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. We, of the other planets, have long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression. The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is, we live in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war. Free to pursue more... profitable enterprises."

"Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you. Gort, berenga."

With those words, the image of Klaatu faded, and Adam felt truly stunned, because if what he'd just heard was true, then it meant that Klaatu's role in the invasion was much smaller than he'd first believed. It was possible that the robot being Gort was the real mastermind behind the invasion of Earth, as it had gone up to that point, and that Klaatu was merely watching it; perhaps giving Gort some creative advice from time to time, but on the whole, taking no significant part in the acts of violence that were going on there; perhaps even searching for some means of saving mankind. That notion bothered Adam a great deal, even before the video continued its tale.

"In the time since the ultimatum was given to the people of Earth," the computer explained, "mankind's technology has advanced drastically in the areas of computers and communications, but unfortunately, the depravity that haunts the human race has not faded, and in fact, has grown tremendously stronger. As communication increased, so did propaganda, and the voice of the corrupt rich in the public square. Soon, mankind's sins had spread further and further across the world, and it was believed, for a time, that the Earth would simply be consumed by its own warring and sinful ways. However, for some reason, peace was achieved between nations for a very long period, and in that time, the aforementioned propaganda began to undermine both public opinion, and seats of governmental power all over the world, in many and diverse ways. Some sought more extreme forms of violence against their fellow man, some craved illicit, irresponsible pleasures without consequences, and others began killing their fellow man en masse, disguising their acts with empty pseudonyms and arbitrary rationalizations, which a true understanding of righteous conduct would have made impossible."

"In spite of this environment of social and ethical turmoil all across the world, several space programs continued to progress among rich nations, until one finally launched a successful mission to the planet Sol 4; which the earth people call Mars. There, an expedition party lived for a brief period, until an act of violence on the part of a daerlin, who'd been disguising herself as a human, triggered the reaction of the interstellar police force, still monitoring the solar system."

"It has become clear that the social climate of Earth, encouraging the refusal to accept responsibility, has become a breeding ground for wickedness, and as such, for violent, ruthless daerlin. More research will need to be done into this, of course, but without strong champions to fight this growing evil, or some means of keeping Earthlings bound to their own world, it will be difficult to satisfy the criteria of Gort and the interstellar police force on the behalf of planet Earth."

That, as it turned out, was the end of the video, and all of a sudden, Adam began to understand some of what was really going on. Until that point, they'd seen the alien invaders as simply an enemy to be overcome, but suddenly, it was becoming clear that Klaatu wasn't the enemy they were really fighting. Even Gort was more of an objective standard than an opponent. Defeating him was like trying to defeat the law of gravity. With the right powers, it could be done, but it never acted out of any genuine malice in the process.

Suddenly, Adam found himself drawing parallels in his mind. He'd studied many fields over the years; many things that he found interesting, and some of those fields had been easy to understand. Others hadn't been as easy, like theology. For the longest time, Adam had wondered how God could be called merciful, and still visit punishments upon people for the sins of the very first Adam, but suddenly, he'd begun to realize the truth. Just being powerful didn't mean that you could do whatever you wanted. Both Klaatu and Gort were proof of that.

Klaatu was a man from some other world, who had great technology, and incredible power, and who seemed like a decent and merciful sort of person. However, when it came to interplanetary peace, he couldn't act against the greater good. Likewise, Gort had spent years and years just waiting and watching, taking no action against Earth or its people at all, though he easily could have. In the end, he'd only reacted when there had been something to react to. The two were virtually the embodiment of an objective standard, and the worst thing was that mankind had been struggling so hard to discard the concept of an objective standard, that for ordinary human beings, it would have seemed just as strange and alien as they were.

Still, when he thought about the situation in that light, it gave Adam a few new ideas about how to cope with it. Gort's criteria for mercy may have been hardwired into him, but every advanced machine had to require some kind of maintenance, and if he was like that too, it meant that Klaatu probably still had some influence over him.

As far as Adam could see, there was no completely sure way of stopping the invasion of Earth, but whatever happened; no matter how bad things were, they'd all have a much better chance of surviving if they could just get Klaatu on their side somehow. It sounded as if he was frantically looking for some slim hope that mankind might have champions willing to cast aside their popularity and fight its evils, and Adam could only think of one way to give Klaatu evidence of that. It was difficult, to say nothing of being dangerous, and it was likely to tear their team apart, but it might be the only way to prove to Klaatu that humanity's villainy wasn't uncontested.

A few moments later, when Adam and Dobson left that room, and started moving further into the ship, however, he felt as if he'd really lost something important during that brief period of research, because he knew that no matter what, from that point on, he couldn't depend on the support of other people anymore. Still, he didn't say a word about that to Dobson.

* * *

Lord Dracula couldn't help but smile as he finished viewing the last video in that very spacious communications hall. The smell of burnt flesh could still be noticed all through the room, but it was the sort of smell that didn't really bother the vampire, because he'd gotten used to it long ago. It hadn't made it even the least bit difficult for him to concentrate on what those view screens had shown him; especially considering just how incredible the videos had been; giving Lord Dracula plenty of information that he'd never had before about the nature of the delightful corruption that had swept over the world those past few hundred years; the reason why he'd been growing stronger and stronger. It had set the vampire's thoughts racing again, as he contemplated what it would mean for him from then on. Suddenly, he realized, he wasn't just one undead lord anymore. He had opportunities before him, which, he thought, it would be foolish to pass up.

In that room, Lord Dracula had already viewed videos on the development of Earth, the "daerlin," which seemed to be an alien name for monsters, and the history of the being calling himself Klaatu. It amazed the vampire that people like him could have caused so much trouble for the planet Earth, but he was learning more and more about the controls to that room with every minute that passed, and he could already see one selection of buttons that seemed to have been sealed off in some kind of transparent bubble. Still, the sight of it just made Dracula smile all the more, as he rested one hand on that bubble, feeling over it with his fingertips for any weak section of it; even a tiny crack to slip through. However, there was nothing. In a way, that only made the vampire feel even more eager as he started to surround his hand with a thick mist, shaping it like a cloud around the bubble; once again trying to determine how to get through it without damaging the machine inside. However, that was when he heard one voice that he hadn't been expecting to hear, coming from the display screens behind him.

"Lord Vlad Dracula."

Quickly, Dracula looked over one shoulder, and there, his image spread across the many screens that were scattered throughout the communications hall, the vampire saw Klaatu again. The alien being was starting to look very stern, as if to give the illusion that he was still in control of the situation. However, the vampire knew how to see through deceptions, and he could tell that Klaatu was just putting up a brave face. He could see that there was no longer anything about that situation that the alien had much influence over.

"Klaatu." Dracula replied, "I suppose that you would not care to tell me how to access this panel."

"Not even if I knew." Klaatu replied a bit stiffly, though it sounded like an honest enough reply, "However, I'd like to come to some kind of agreement, if possible."

"I would like the planet Earth to survive the month." Dracula observed, "You don't want that. I fail to see what kind of agreement we can..."

"You're wrong, Dracula." Klaatu interrupted him firmly, however, "I don't want to kill your people; I never did."

However, although Dracula could sense that most of Klaatu's words to him were sincere, he also knew when he was being lied to, and a moment later, had turned back to the protective bubble, just replying "Don't lie to me, Klaatu. You can't fool me."

The alien looked more than a little shaken by Dracula's words, but he continued just a moment later, recovering from his shock.

"Alright. It was a lie." Klaatu admitted, "For a few moments, when I found out what had happened these last few decades, I did want your people dead. That was how repulsed I was by what I saw; the weakness and evil everywhere, without shame or remorse..."

"I somewhat like all that." Dracula just admitted, but it seemed that Klaatu was already starting to get angry with him again.

"You would, monster." Klaatu replied with acid in his voice as he spoke, "Why didn't you just take my warnings seriously? Why did you have to cause so much evil?"

However, Dracula's smile only broadened when Klaatu asked him that, and he was still rubbing his hands over the transparent control barrier as he responded to the alien's questions.

"I think that you have given me too much credit. The evil for which I'm personally responsible isn't really so great. I've murdered, stolen, infiltrated high society, wielded influence and power alongside other men with aims of impurity and immorality, and believe me; there are many other men like that among the rich. Monsters can cause corruption if we want to, but it's really more the other way around. The more weak and corrupt people are, the stronger and more numerous we grow. It's a rather uncomplicated fact."

"I see that now," Klaatu replied very somberly, "but you didn't realize that until recently, did you?"

Dracula paused at that point. It was true that he hadn't really understood that in the past. For him, corruption was just a part of his life; just something that he set in motion to protect himself from reprisals. However, what he hadn't realized was that there were dangers to it as well, and enemies could strike from the dark, just as easily as from the light. At last, he replied to Klaatu with a slight frown.

"If I had, it's possible that this situation never would have arisen. You see, Klaatu, I came here for one reason only, and it wasn't to destroy you or your robot police force. Oh, they are a problem, but based on what I've just learned, I merely need to destroy this one ship, and take one machine back with me to Earth, and all of my problems will be solved. With the device that your people used to nullify electric power, I could prevent mankind from ever reaching the stars again, and avoid provoking any further reactions from the robots that your people have been using as policemen. Then, I could seize control of the planet Earth in time, and feed on whoever I wanted, at any time, and for any reason, without needing to fight any well-armed, uncorrupted men. In fact, part of the reason why I gathered up a team of monsters and brought them here was to nullify a few major threats to my own survival."

However, when Dracula said that, a look of unspeakable horror spread across Klaatu's face, and it was obvious that the alien was both terrified and disgusted by Dracula's words.

"What? What are you saying?"

"Please, do not pretend that you never suspected, Klaatu. You must know that I have never done anything for any purpose but to gain power and safety for myself. As strong as my teammates are, I cannot really count on them. They have no reason to help me in anything but this one mission, and I am afraid that if they ever made it back to planet Earth, they would be nothing but competition for me. When I first stepped onto this ship, it was my intention to destroy it, and them, escaping from it alone somehow. That was the real purpose for which I formed my monster team; to dispose of them all. However, my aims have changed a bit, since viewing those videos just a few moments ago."

"No..." Klaatu muttered, looking absolutely horrified by the vampire's words. However, Dracula continued, undeterred.

"Listening to the story of the daerlin and their interstellar war has reawakened in me an old ambition, which I'd once thought was lost forever." Dracula said, a smile stretching across his face again, "Your videos told me much. For a while, I'd assumed that those I fed on were being exorcized by the local humans. In fact, I'd thought that aside from myself, there were only two or three other surviving vampires in the world. Do you know how many confirmed vampires there are now on Earth, aside from myself?"

"Forty-six." Klaatu intoned flatly, looking utterly miserable.

"And there may be more in hiding." Dracula replied with a satisfied grin, "These last few decades, the corruption and skepticism of man has grown so great, that they cannot even deal with the weak, newborn garbage I leave behind for them. The way that things are going right now, I could fill the world with vampires, and with modern chemical technology, a way could be found to feed us all. In addition to all the other monsters that have been surfacing, the planet Earth could be turned into a daemon's paradise over the next few decades; a new planet Harr, to wipe out the confident and the powerful of this universe, and I can decide whether our planet will be self-contained, or whether it will open itself to the cosmos, and begin a new war amidst the stars. I have already proven my superiority to your pitiful robots. Do you believe that you could stop me?"

"You're insane, Dracula!" Klaatu exclaimed furiously, "A moment ago, you were talking about eliminating the competition, and now you suddenly want the whole planet Earth to be filled with monsters?"

"Oh, it's true that I could be giving birth to mountains of competition for myself, and even create a plague of evil, which could spread across the galaxy," Dracula admitted with a sly smile, "but that notion doesn't horrify me as it once did. In fact, I'm starting to find the idea somewhat pleasant."

"Don't be a fool, Dracula!" Klaatu exclaimed, though he looked more terrified than angry over what was happening there, "If you go through with this, you'll be dooming your whole planet! Can't you see that?"

"Yes, yes. I'm sure." Dracula just replied, still looking over the controls carefully, memorizing where each button was as he tried to get them working for him. The vampire lord didn't say another word to Klaatu, but then, he didn't need to. If he needed to mount another defense for planet Earth, he could, and with the vast numbers of monsters, still growing on Earth, there was nothing that Klaatu or Gort could do to stop him. What was there to talk about anymore? Even Klaatu must have realized that the threat posed by Earth was growing beyond his control, and through it all, Lord Dracula smiled.

However, just then, the vampire noticed that something was wrong. The controls he'd been using just a moment ago had stopped responding to him, and with his sonar sense, he could tell that someone was approaching him from behind; someone who was being very quiet, but who, nonetheless, was an intimidating figure; the seven-foot man who Dracula had been most eager to get rid of from the beginning. Even before the vampire turned to face his new adversary, he knew who his enemy was.

The patchwork giant was glaring at him from only a couple yards away; clearly very angry, and about to attack, and that was all that Dracula needed to see. In only a moment, he knew, he'd be fighting to the death against Adam Frankenstein.


	27. Chapter 27: Dracula Vs Frankenstein

Chapter 27: Dracula Vs. Frankenstein

* * *

"You seem upset, Adam." Dracula said, smiling in the calmest way at the large, misshapen man who was standing before him, "I know I left you behind, but as I'm sure you have noticed, the walls of this place are soundproof. I wasn't aware that you had survived the destruction of our rocket."

"I know." Adam replied, however, "If you'd known I was still alive, you would have come back to finish me off."

In that moment, of course, Dracula knew that Adam had overheard his talk with Klaatu, and most likely, he realized, there was no way to get the patchwork man on his side again, but even so, he decided to continue speaking, hoping to convince him in a different way.

"I see that you overheard my talk with the alien," Dracula said quickly, "so you must have also heard that I had changed my mind about eradicating you. In fact, I would like our alliance to continue forever, if you'll let it. We can raise a new race of monsters on planet Earth; be part of the same army for the rest of our lives, and sweep across the stars with the technology that we have gathered here. With human skepticism as prevalent as it is, no more monsters would have to die. We could become the masters of the universe together, and as the founders of this new army, our power would be the greatest of all. Doesn't any of this appeal to you, Adam Frankenstein? Aren't you ready to discard the humans? Won't you grasp greatness?"

The whole time that Dracula spoke, he watched Adam's eyes carefully, and there was a look in those eyes, for a short time, that seemed to represent contemplation. Just what he was contemplating, the vampire couldn't be sure. Adam might have been seriously considering his offer, or he might have just been evaluating his chances against the vampire lord in a fight. In the end, however, he said the one thing that Dracula had least been expecting. The vampire had been under the impression that Adam had been trying to do the right thing recently, and yet, the words emerging from the mouth of the monster of Frankenstein were a clear sign to the contrary.

"Before I left Earth, I talked with one human being, who I respected, and he told me that he believed I was destined for greatness. I'm sure that this... this moment, right now... I'm sure this is what he meant."

Then, just a moment later, Adam had held out his hand to the vampire one more time, and Dracula wasn't sure what to do anymore. In a sense, he'd been hoping that Adam would fight with him, so that he could just kill the monster of Frankenstein, and claim that he'd just been blown out into space, or some such thing. Adam was very dangerous to him, as long as he was alive, because he knew what Dracula's intentions had been, before boarding that ship, and that knowledge could very easily be used against him. Still, it seemed as if Frankenstein's creation was willing to accept the vampire's bargain, and he couldn't refuse, or it would be a sign of further betrayal and mistrust between them.

Slowly, Dracula reached out his hand to shake the much larger hand of Adam Frankenstein, but as soon as they had a firm grip on each other's hands, Dracula realized that something was wrong. To start with, he could feel the strength of Adam's hand and arm, and as powerful as he himself had grown over the centuries, their arm strength seemed to be virtually equal. It gave the vampire lord pause, even before electricity started traveling through his body.

Dracula hissed in alarm, and tried to pull his hand back out of Adam's grip, but he couldn't get enough leverage at first, and he could feel his body suffering more and more damage from the electric charge being forced through his veins and muscles. Furthermore, he could see that Adam had pulled a small, sharp spike of metal from behind his back, and was swinging it around at the vampire, so he knew that he didn't have any choice but to use his full powers to defend himself.

Quickly, the vampire raised one leg to block Adam's other hand, then braced his other leg against the monster's chest, getting just enough leverage to wrench himself loose from the patchwork man's grasp. There was no pain, of course, but Dracula could tell that some superficial damage had been done to his wrist by that maneuver, which was gradually healing. However, the fact remained that Adam Frankenstein had just tried to kill him, and would likely make another attempt before too much time had passed.

"Why?" Dracula asked, however, before making any more moves against his enemy, "Why is my death the only option for you?"

However, much to his surprise, Adam actually decided to answer that question a moment later.

"It's because you really are the most evil creature I've ever seen. Every decision you've made since I first met you was made in the most wicked way possible, including this one. You wanted us dead to serve your evil purposes, you came here to defend your evil ways, and even when you changed your mind, and decided not to kill us, it was only because you thought you could do more evil that way. Evil isn't greatness, Dracula. It's an absence of greatness, and if I can kill you for good, here and now, it may be the greatest thing I've ever done."

However, that was when Dracula decided to try the one thing he'd never dared to attempt against Adam. Before, he'd been worried about upsetting the unity of the team; afraid that some of its members might leave before their "tragic disappearance," but since Adam clearly wanted to kill him already, there was no longer any risk. Soon, the vampire lord had straightened up, and spoke to Adam in his most authoritative voice.

"You cannot harm me, and you will not. You will put that weapon down, and back away."

Of course, Dracula didn't really expect his hypnotic command to work terribly well against Adam, because it only really worked against those without strong wills or right morals. However, even against the most upright people, he'd found, his commands always gave them some slight hesitation. Adam didn't even look confused or conflicted when he heard the vampire's words. In fact, he had a look of utter loathing on his face a moment later, when he lunged at Dracula again, and found himself holding thin air, while a large bat surrounded by thick mists flew off to one side, changing again in the blink of an eye, once it was out of his immediate reach.

There was no more to be said between the two of them, of course. Adam had made it plain that all he wanted was to kill the vampire, and Dracula had actually tried to control his teammate supernaturally. There was simply no more room for discussion or truce. In that moment, the vampire had taken the form of a tremendous wolf; almost as big as Adam himself, and soon, he'd leapt at the patchwork man again. However, that time, Adam was starting to look much more confident, and in just a few seconds more, Dracula's eyes were blinded by a massive flash of light, as an enormous field of electric power materialized around Adam. Soon, the vampire felt even more electricity running through him from head to toe, driving him back again, and before long, he'd returned to his human appearance, staring angrily at Adam as he got back to his feet. The visible electric charge had vanished by that point, but somehow, Dracula knew that Adam was capable of a lot more than just that.

A hundred and fifty years before, Dracula's life would have been endangered by powers no greater than those. He would have been forced to flee before an enemy like Adam, and try to catch him by surprise somehow. However, the vampire lord's powers had been drastically increased in recent years, and he was still a warrior at heart. The time had come, he decided silently, to show that barely-human creature all of the new powers that he'd gained.

In an instant, burning heat had begun to build up in the air around Lord Dracula, surrounding his body in a protective field of his own. Fire killed lesser vampires very quickly, which was one of the reasons why he'd been so eager to master it, and soon, the heat had grown so great, that the air around him was actually starting to give off small sparks; just an inch away from bursting into flame. Adam seemed to have recognized the danger, however, because his own protective field went up at the same time, and in a moment, the two collided with each other hard, their hands making contact, and their respective energies fighting one another with nearly-equal strength, and spreading out across the whole room, melting and shorting out computers, and causing fires to start in nearly every flammable section of the surrounding equipment.

In some ways, Dracula was dismayed by how that struggle was going. He'd never suspected that Adam had such a powerful force inside his body, and worse yet, it was strong enough to challenge his. Still, the vampire had a plan, and in a sense, Adam was playing right into his hands, even when he lifted Dracula up over his head, and threw him against the far wall.

The vampire lord was still smiling when he hit the wall, and he continued to smile afterwards, because the power to defeat his enemy was right within his grasp. All that he had to do was reach out and take it, and in just a moment, rising up into the air again, he did just that.

The vampire could see the look of confusion and worry on Adam's face when he rose effortlessly into the air, amidst the fires that had started, all across the room, and those fires rose up to join him. All at once, what looked like jets of flame were erupting forth from countless machines and numerous corners of what had once been the communications hall, all shooting towards Dracula at once, twisting and warping as they reached his position, and were sucked into his aura, joining with the power that he already had, and causing the flames that had formed around him to grow larger and brighter. He could feel the strength of those flames; the speed of those fast-moving molecules that surrounded him, resonating within his mind; further increasing his own power and speed, and at last, in one swift motion, he shot forward in a blaze of power, slamming his fist into Adam's chin, then again into his midsection. Finally, he slammed both fists down on Adam's head from above, knocking him downward, catching the patchwork man on his foot, and kicking him backwards to the ground, leaving marks of fire on his flesh, which continued to burn as he lay there, looking stunned and surprised.

It seemed that Adam hadn't realized just what kind of power Lord Dracula had, or how much stronger it had made him. However, Frankenstein still wasn't completely finished, so the vampire opened both hands again, stretching out his fingers towards the prone figure of Adam, still lying on the floor. Fire began to gather around his hands in tiny, floating balls at that moment, forming into a blast of heat; strong enough to melt metal...

* * *

Dobson and Adam had separated just a short time earlier, going off in different directions, once she'd had a chance to tamper with the library computers a bit, to let her download the alien maps into her own database. Adam seemed to have been looking those maps over carefully for a few seconds, but then he'd told her that he had something he needed to do, and that he'd meet up with her again later. In a sense, Dobson was a little curious about just what he was planning next, but she was also a bit relieved. After all, he might not like what she was about to do, and she'd been hoping to find some excuse to ditch him at some point. The way that Adam had taken the initiative in that respect had made a few things easier for her.

When they'd parted ways, Dobson had immediately headed for the nearest sensor room. There were three primary locations aboard the ship, which served as control centers for the ship's sensors, and Dobson was fairly certain that with just a little work, she could gain access to all three through the computer. It was just a matter of introducing a nanomachine strain of her own into the alien device at the correct point.

The room that Dobson found herself in was actually fairly small, compared to some of the gigantic hallways and control centers in that ship. It looked like it wasn't more than a couple dozen feet tall, and only about twice as many feet across, but that was more than enough room for Dobson to work in. There were several large terminals, apparently granting access to other areas of the ship, though she found, to her surprise, that the communications were down, and one of the room's walls seemed to be made from some kind of transparent substance, which revealed what was in the next room; a power core of some kind, which was radiating a sort of phosphorescent glow. It wasn't terribly bright light, but obviously, the power was still active. However, when Dobson actually injected her nanomachines into one of the terminals, and started trying to access the alien computer, she quickly discovered that their team had done an awful lot of damage to the war vessel already.

Thirty-five percent of the war factory had completely stopped operating, and another twelve percent only had intermittent power. Worse yet, just using those limited resources, Dobson was able to determine that the war factory didn't have any escape pods or shuttles, which probable meant that she and the others would either need to launch another robot to get back to Earth, or else they'd have to find some way to take the whole saucer back with them. It was a nasty little complication, and one that Dobson needed to spend some time thinking about, so in the meantime, she decided to see if she could access the weapons systems somehow.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, gaining direct control over the weapons themselves proved impossible. Dobson ran into a number of safeguards; protected by some type of specific code, which locked down completely, as soon as she tried to figure it out. However, what she did manage to get into was a schematic database that was closely associated with the weapon room, and the moment that she saw those schematics, she very nearly started licking her lips in delight.

The alien technology described by those files was beyond amazing, because of the one thing that really mattered about every scientific discovery; the new possibilities that they opened up. Soon, Dobson was downloading all sorts of new information about advanced weapons and other technology with combat applications; remote access signal generators, anti-gravity field generators, operating from within the field they generated, null-motion bombs the size of a pin's head, and perhaps the one piece of technology that Dobson had dreamed about more than any other; the neural path disrupter.

Unfortunately, Dobson still didn't know everything about the human brain, but she did know that certain kinds of thoughts produced certain kinds of reactions within the brain's neurons. She'd charted a number of different neuron patterns, corresponding to types of thoughts; mostly by experimenting with her own brain, and although there was still no machine, as far as she could tell, that was subtle enough to control a person's thoughts without frying their brain, the neural path disrupter; which she was seeing on the screen, promised to be the next best thing.

She'd only taken a glance at the schematics for the device, but if it worked the way that it seemed to, it would enable an outside party to literally stop other people from thinking in specific ways.

Of course, many people tried to keep their thoughts focused on one thing at a time, without getting distracted, and the neural path disrupter had most likely been designed to make that easier, but, Dobson realized, it also had other, less-savory applications as well. For example, a scientist could use it to keep people from seriously considering conclusions other than his own. A politician could use it to keep people from thinking hateful thoughts about him, and a newscaster could use it to keep people from thinking at all.

Of course, perhaps most dangerously, a tyrant could use it to make rebellion literally unthinkable, and Dobson didn't hesitate in the least before downloading that schematic. It was a very dangerous bit of technology to leave lying around, of course, but for the moment, all that she thought about was the one dream that had obsessed her as a younger girl, still struggling to make it through college without compromising the truth. For a moment, and only a moment, her thoughts wandered back to that time, as she finished downloading the last of the schematics into her onboard computer.

* * *

"What are you still doing here, Stephanie?" Jen asked, looking in her friend's direction with an expression of sadness as she stepped into the biology lab, where Dobson was still seated at one of the tables near the back, looking through a microscope carefully through her thick glasses. Dobson held up one hand at that point, though she didn't like to ignore her friend. For a few moments, there was utter silence between the two of them, until she finally tore her eyes away from the microscope and started rubbing the bridge of her long, aquiline nose. Stephanie Dobson didn't usually think about it, but that nose was probably the main reason why she'd never had too many romantic distractions in her life. Still, she wasn't the only scientist who'd ever had a less-than-fashionable appearance, nor was she the only person in that room who'd ever missed opportunities for dates, because of the way she looked.

One of the reasons why Dobson and Jen had become such fast friends was how much they had in common. Like Dobson, Jen wasn't exactly gorgeous. She had pretty eyes, but her cheeks and figure were quite a bit fuller than most people liked, and one of her ears was a bit higher than the other. Still, those were some of the things that Dobson had always liked about her friend, just because it meant that both of them were different; outcasts from the popular crowd, who sought refuge in learning.

Also, like Dobson, Jen had quickly discovered that the learning of experimentation led to contradictions with popular, theoretical science, and that therefore, one couldn't necessarily trust every claim made by popular scientists. Of course, that was no surprise to either of them, since ignoring the popular crowd, and even taking pride in not being popular had become major factors in both of their lives. The only problem was that the teachers of their classes refused to see things that way, which led to near-constant power struggles between the school authorities, and every last student who wanted to learn the truth through verifiable proof, rather than hearsay.

Dobson and Jen were both members of that group, but one thing that the large-nosed, young science student had noticed about her friend, was that as clever and intelligent as she was, her friend just didn't have as much spirit as she did, and she wasn't the kind of person who seemed likely to spend her life fighting the status quo.

Even before entering college, Dobson had decided that the only thing she wanted out of life was to shake the scientific community to pieces for discarding the purpose of science; to measure and gain facts. Jen, it seemed, was a bit less grandiose with her dreams. In her mind, it was just a matter of proving that her conclusions had taken things into account that whole generations of scientists either hadn't realized, or had just ignored, in order to be popular. Jen just wanted to prove that she was right. Dobson's motives were a bit different. It wasn't really about ego, in her case. She was at war.

"I'm still running tests." Dobson replied to her friend's last question eventually, pushing the microscope away, "Of the last hundred experiments, three didn't produce the expected result. I can't go home until I know why."

However, in just a moment, Jen had put one hand on the table, looking very sad about something. At last, though, she broke some bad news to her friend, though she seemed to realize that it wouldn't really change anything, even as she said it.

"Professor Herrin heard about your experiment." Jen said sadly, "I heard him talking to Miss Wellington about it."

"Oh?" Dobson asked, feeling mildly curious, "What did he have to say?"

"He said that even if you complete your experiment, and produce your proof, he can't accept it." Jen said sadly, probably expecting Dobson to start scowling bitterly, but her friend's reaction nearly shook her to the core. Almost immediately, Dobson was laughing in that high, shrill voice she had, which made her sound a little like a hyena, and when she finally replied to her friend, there wasn't even a hint of bitterness on her face; just condescending amusement.

"Well, good. I'm glad to have that out of the way. I'm not doing this experiment for that hack's sake anyway, but keep it under your hat. I still need the school's resources to finish."

At that point, however, Jen had actually started to look a little scared, and when she asked her next question, it was obvious that her plans for her own future had never even been similar to Dobson's.

"Wait a minute. You're not turning this project in? Why? Why would you do all this if you didn't plan on getting extra credit out of it?"

"Extra credit is meaningless; just marks on paper." Dobson replied as she pushed another slide under her microscope, "I'm doing this experiment for extra knowledge. That's far more valuable. In a way, I'm glad these fools are ignoring my work. It gives me the chance to grow more powerful, without anyone realizing it."

However, when she said that, a look of real worry spread across Jen's face; as if she were slowly learning to fear her friend. Dobson, after all, could never be satisfied until she'd proven herself superior to all those who'd criticized her approach; until she'd found practical and powerful applications for every piece of genuine science that she could get out of the world, and overwhelmed the so-called "theoretical sciences" by sheer, technological force. Dobson had described her dreams to her friend, of course, but it seemed that Jen had never truly taken her seriously before that night, because her next question came out in a very scared tone of voice.

"You're serious about this, aren't you? You want to get something out of this discovery? What is it? What's the point of this experiment?"

However, Dobson still trusted Jen, so she explained herself immediately.

"The point is to use manipulable mitosis to sound out the full development potential of a basic organism. No one's ever done an experiment on species development in quite this way before, and all of my findings have indicated that it's utterly impossible for purely-biological species to alter beyond the rigidly-defined limits ingrained into their makeup. This is virtually proof that modern theoretical science is barking up the wrong tree. Of course, the real reason why I started this experiment was to learn how to implement bionic implants into organisms without suffering complications. When tonight's work is done, I'll be ready to begin human testing."

"H-human testing?" Jen nearly gasped in something that sounded a lot like dread, so in just another moment, Dobson decided to explained herself a bit more.

"On myself, of course. I'm thinking of attaching a sound amplifier to my ears, and controlling its volume with eye motions at first, until I learn more about the human brain. This can all be done by machines, if necessary, but that'll take some time to design too, and... well, the job is still less than half done, but it would have been a lot harder without access to an organized science lab like this one."

Jen had started to back away towards the door by that point, and just a moment later, Dobson had apparently finished her experiment, pushing the microscope away, and standing up again, though honestly, she'd looked taller sitting down. However, even considering her relatively small height, Jen's expression was growing more and more nervous, and Dobson had felt elated, as though she were in charge of the world already.

"Oh, when I think of all these blind fools, who think they learn science in rooms like these... When I think of the idiots who think that they teach science in this very room... In the name of Tesla, Jen; doesn't it look like a flock of sheep, wondering what to do with a hunk of plutonium? Doesn't it make you feel alive, being the one nuclear physicist in the bunch who can ignore the advice of those around, and seize the opportunity that no one else dares? We're rare kinds of people, Jen. We don't need to take things at face value. We don't need to take the word of others. We don't need the help or popularity of our peers. We use logic. We use reason. We form hypothesees. We discover facts. We don't get distracted by unproven nonsense. We build physical power with our discoveries. We're the rare students of science who can actually claim to be scientists. Don't ever forget what a glorious thing that is."

Then, chuckling to herself, Dobson had begun to analyze the data she'd just gathered, and just a few moments later, without another word, Jen had left that lab in mortal terror.

* * *

Dobson nearly chuckled to herself as she remembered those days; the days when she'd first told her good friend just what she planned to do with her experiments. It had taken Jen about a week to work up the courage to start talking to her again after that, but in the end, the two had still been friends, all the way through college, until Dobson had started traveling around the world in search of technological and biochemical secrets, and lost track of all her old friends. Still, the one thing she'd never forgotten had been the obsession that drove her life.

"I'll show those fools that I was right." Dobson muttered with a cruel grin as she disconnected her armor from the alien machine, "I'll show them, even if I have to open each one of their skulls and implant the information into their brains directly."

Then, in moments, Dobson had left that place, opening up her map data again, and traveling further down the hallway, towards one of the less-damaged robot manufacturing rooms.

* * *

Dracula had built up a huge amount of heat around his hands, in preparation for his next attack, and as always, it only made him feel stronger, until the moment when he fired it out at Adam Frankenstein, who was still lying on the floor.

However, although that blast of flame turned the alien metal red with its intense heat, melting a hole in the floor, and setting fire to a number of machines in the room below, the vampire lord hissed in aggravation, because he knew that Adam had escaped the blast somehow.

He couldn't explain how it had happened, but at the last second before the blast, there'd been another clap of thunder, and a flash of light had emerged from the spot where Adam had been laying down; as if some invisible force of energy had seized him from his place on the floor, and carried him elsewhere. Then, before the vampire could even begin to wonder where he'd gone, a very large fist collided with him from behind, knocking him through the hole he'd just made, and to the floor of the room below with a mighty crash.

Lord Dracula only had a moment to roll over and get back to his feet after hitting the floor that time, but the sight that he saw when he looked up again nearly made him wish he hadn't. Another peal of thunder seemed to split the air in that room, as a bolt of electricity struck downward from the room above, through the small hole in the ceiling, and somehow remained where it was for several seconds, until from within the electric charge itself, Dracula saw Adam's body beginning to take shape; from the middle outward.

It only took about a second for Adam to appear from that bolt of lightning, but the vampire had witnessed every moment of it, and in that brief time, he'd realized the truth about the patchwork man.

Though Victor Frankenstein may have thought that he was using some simple, scientific discovery to create an artificial life form, something about Adam was not natural at all. Perhaps some part of his body had once belonged to a supernatural being, rather than a human, but however it had happened, Adam had just displayed powers that transcended the limits of natural science, not unlike Dracula's own, and just a moment later, he did it again.

Almost effortlessly, as if responding to some hidden, inner nature, Adam Frankenstein raised his left hand up into the air, and at once, sparks of electricity began to appear in the air around his hand, gathering closer and closer to his skin, until they seemed to almost become solid, taking a single shape, around which his fist closed a moment later. That was when Lord Dracula started to realize just whose powers Adam had somehow inherited, and the reason why he'd always been such a dangerous opponent; the reason why no matter how bad the odds, he'd always seemed to pull through in the end.

A moment later, Adam had hurled the weapon of solidified electricity at Dracula like a javelin, but the vampire lord had already decided to pull out all the stops. If the patchwork man's powers were even close to the last person who'd thrown lightning with his hands, then he couldn't afford to take it easy on him for even a second.

At once, the vampire lord began using the last power that he'd never let anyone find out about; and just in the moment before the bolt of electricity was about to collide with him, his whole body changed around him, taking a form that he very rarely took; the form of a small, but very thick cloud.

Even Adam looked stunned for a moment when Lord Dracula took his ethereal form; changing into a thick, spreading mist. However, he still didn't look as afraid as he should have been, because while the vampire's mist form didn't appear threatening at first, it was by far his most powerful transformation, and in only a moment, he demonstrated why. Not only was it virtually impossible to harm him in that state, but his own ability to attack his enemies had actually increased.

Of course, Adam had already seen how his electric power had been passing right through Dracula's mist form, and he must have realized that his fists would do the same, so he immediately started trying to retreat. However, after showing just how powerful the patchwork man really was, the vampire wasn't about to let his enemy get away. Adam Frankenstein had grown far too strong and insubordinate already, and that meant that he had to die.

Quickly, the mist-like form of Dracula swept through the room after Adam, surrounding his legs, and in a moment, the vampire allowed tiny bits of himself to materialize out of the mist, clamping down over his enemy's legs, and yanking him to the ground in a swift motion, continuing to conjure fire as fast as he could, to hold his enemy's protective electric barrier at bay, and making for his opponent's throat. If he could just get to the patchwork man's neck, Dracula thought, he might be able to strangle him, or even absorb some of his power.

However, just as Lord Dracula's mist form was creeping up towards his enemy's neck like a hundred tiny hands, Adam did the one thing that Dracula had never expected, especially after the two of them had fought to such a standstill so recently. He reached into his pocket, and whipped out a cross.

Dracula hissed again as he felt his power draining away all around him. The flames around his body started dying down, and his mist form was contracting again, being driven back by the very antithesis of everything he believed in, and it was only then that Lord Dracula truly realized his mistake in bringing Adam on board. For a while, the vampire lord had seen all monsters as similar; just people with violent impulses and strong powers, each with the craving for more, for one reason or another. The one thing that hadn't occurred to him was that Adam's life experiences had been virtually the opposite of his.

Even during his lifetime, Dracula had always been a proud man; a man who craved power, domination and conquest, and never paid much attention to anything else. He was an incredibly selfish person, and when he'd returned from the grave, more powerful than ever, nothing about that had changed.

By contrast, Adam Frankenstein had lived his early life without too many opportunities or goals of his own, simply because he hadn't been able to afford them. Thanks to his bizarre appearance, and his initial inexperience in communicating with human beings, Adam had been a fugitive and an outcast from virtually the day when he'd come to life, and eventually, had committed murder multiple times, then tried desperately to forget his countless miseries, which had only made him feel even worse. His whole life had been a long string of sorrows; one painful sacrifice after another. It only made sense that in the end, he'd turn his eyes to the one belief system on Earth that honored and promised rewards for those sacrifices, and forgiveness for his sins.

Dracula didn't have much time to think any of that through, however, because soon, he was back in his humanoid form, and backing up against the opposite wall, trying to get as far away from that cross as he could. Its mere presence was sending genuine pain through every inch of his body, and worse yet, Adam was picking up a twisted spike of metal from the ground in one hand, with a sharp edge along one side. When he held it like that, Dracula was dismayed to see, it looked a lot like a scythe crossed with a scimitar, and in just another moment, Frankenstein's creation had charged forward, holding both of his weapons out in front of him with a look of bold determination on his face.


	28. Chapter 28: The Bargain

Chapter 28: The Bargain

* * *

Adam's hands were covered in blood as he pushed open one of the doors of the half-melted chamber he'd just been in. He knew that none of the computers in that section of the ship would be working, and he also knew that his recent accomplishments hadn't done much to benefit Earth. Of course, he'd fought and defeated Dracula, but Klaatu had no way of knowing that, and he wasn't sure how to get in contact with the alien again. Adam had been hoping to let the alien know what had passed between Dracula and himself, but as it turned out, any attempt to contact Klaatu would involve gaining access to a different communications system, and that, unfortunately, meant confiding in Dobson.

Adam didn't really want to talk to Dobson about what he'd recently done, because he wasn't sure she'd take his word about Dracula's betrayal. Of course, he knew that she wasn't crazy about Dracula either, but she also didn't seem like the type who'd kill somebody for a petty reason like that. The truth was, Adam had no proof that Dracula had betrayed them, except the words of the vampire himself, and he didn't have a recording of those to share with anyone else. As hard as he'd fought, and as amazing as his victory had been, there was no sure path out of that situation. He just had to come clean with Dobson and hope that she trusted his word.

The creation of Frankenstein continued to race through the war factory at top speed for several minutes, until he finally located Dobson, who was in a huge production hall of some kind, that looked like it was producing war robots the size of small towns; shaped like a variety of large insects and people. She'd apparently found one huge insect body, and attached more propulsion rockets to the back of it, removing the computer that would have wound up running it, and replacing it with a creation of her own. When Adam walked up to her, she was using some kind of laser to weld together the open spaces in the tremendous war machine; turning that giant, alien creation into a makeshift space shuttle. Adam had to admit that it was a very impressive job, but that only made him feel more nervous when he spoke to the mad scientist.

"Dobson..." Adam began at last, however, "I've got some bad news about Dracula."

However, she didn't even turn around to look at him, or pause in her work at all. She just replied "I'm listening."

"Dracula was planning to betray us." Adam said sadly, still not sure what the scientist's reaction would be, "Just a few minutes ago, I heard him talking to the alien Klaatu, and..."

"That's ridiculous." Dobson replied flatly, "Dracula's no alien. Why would he turn us in to the invaders?"

"I didn't say he sided with the invaders." Adam replied, however, "He was planning to destroy us all."

At that point, however, Dobson did finally pause in her work, turning off the laser she'd been working with, and looking at Adam curiously. Finally, however, she asked him another question, and she was starting to look confused by that point, as though that mission was boggling even her tremendous intellect.

"When you heard Dracula say that, where was he?" she asked with a note of urgency in her voice.

"The communications hall," Adam replied, "but the whole place is a wreck now."

However, Dobson didn't seem to care about that, and a moment later, after walking over to a computer terminal on the other side of the room, attaching something to it, and bringing up a menu, Dobson explained just why she wasn't concerned.

"I've seen the war factory schematics. The communications hall is one of the places where information is gathered and sent from, but it's not where it's stored. There's a central databank closer to the center of the ship, which should contain video records of every conversation made by this ship's communications room. I didn't care about that before, but..."

Almost at once, however, Dobson seemed to have found the file she'd wanted, because up came an image of Lord Dracula, and the very sight of him still made Adam angry, even after all that had just happened between them. Adam could also see the view screen with Klaatu on it, and for the first time, he saw the look of terror on the alien's face, when Dracula announced his plans for the rest of the universe. At last, Adam saw himself in that video; emerging from where he'd been hiding and confronting the vampire about his evil plans. Dobson continued to watch the video with a stern look on her face, until Dracula asked Adam why he was attacking, and he gave his explanation. At that point, her face went somewhat pale, and the monster of Frankenstein started to get some nasty suspicions about just what was going through the mad scientist's head. When the video finally cut out as a result of their continuing battle, Dobson was looking very scared, and yet, very determined when she spoke.

"You killed him, didn't you?"

However, Adam decided, there was no point in denying the obvious, so after a few moments, he replied, "I'm standing here, aren't I?"

For some reason, it seemed as though Dobson was experiencing some kind of inner doubt at that point; almost as though she hadn't heard a word about what the vampire had been planning to do to them. However, when she did finally reply to Adam, her words dispelled that fear, at least.

"I'm downloading this video, Adam. It's very important for all of us. I don't think any of the others will blame you for killing him once they learn what he'd planned to do to us, but one thing still bothers me. You said that wasn't even the real reason why he had to die."

Adam had to pause for a moment, to think over his reply to that, but he knew, from the start, what that reply had to be.

"No. It wasn't."

"You only killed him because of his evil ambitions, from what I can tell. Am I right about that, Adam?"

That time, Adam didn't hesitate before he nodded.

"I only ask because many of us have ambitions as well, and some of them involve things that you might consider evil. Are you going to kill us for those?"

However, what went through Adam's head next was a little strange. Obviously, he still needed Dobson's help to prove Dracula's guilt, to get everyone together again, and even to get back to Earth, but he didn't even consider lying, or trying to comfort her. Ultimately, though his answer was complicated, he didn't go out of his way to make her feel safe.

"Dobson, I've murdered a lot of people in the past, and recently, I decided to put that behind me. I don't want to murder anyone anymore, and the only reason that I exorcized Dracula was because he was already dead. If you do something tremendously evil, I may feel compelled to fight you, and you might die during that fight, but I won't make plans to end your life the way I did with him. I might kill again, but I won't murder, no matter what you or anyone else does to deserve it."

Of course, Dobson didn't look satisfied with that response, but much to Adam's surprise, she continued to press the matter a moment later.

"Let's say that I did something nasty to the people of the Earth." Dobson continued a moment later, "Would the two of us really have to be at each other's throats, after all we've been through together?"

However, by that point, it had become obvious to Adam that Dobson was asking those questions for a reason. She was clearly very nervous, and was losing her confidence more and more with every word she spoke. However, in the end, Adam knew that he couldn't make her feel much better, except by lying, and after all she'd done for him, he couldn't have dishonored her by lying to her like that.

"You're a scientist, so you know that when you make a change to the conditions of an experiment, the outcome changes as well." Adam explained patiently, "You know that our actions have consequences. You can't expect to go around doing evil things to other people, and have nothing come of it. There are consequences for every sin. However, depending on what you're talking about, I might not think it was my job to enforce those consequences. Now, be honest with me, Dobson. This isn't just some hypothetical question, is it? You're planning something terrible, aren't you?"

For a few moments, Dobson looked positively red-faced, but at last, with a scowl, she explained herself.

"One of the driving motives of my life has been to shake up Earth's scientific community. They never took my findings seriously; never made an effort to break free of their fake science and start producing breakthroughs again. I need to force them to acknowledge how foolish they've been, no matter what kind of technology it takes."

At first, Adam wanted to reply to that with a stern reprimand, but when he took a few more moments to think it over, he realized that Dobson's desires weren't really all that evil. She'd seen imperfection and foolishness, and she'd wanted to help people get back on track, even if they had to suffer pain in the process. However, her idea about using technology to force people to do her bidding crossed an invisible line. Adam had spent a lot of time talking to Barry recently, and one of the biggest fears that Barry had expressed to his friend was the fear of losing his self-control, and being forced into something he didn't want to do. Taking away a person's free will, Adam realized, whether through technology or lycanthropy, was a horrifying thing. It didn't seem like Dobson was going to budge in that regard, though, so a few moments later, he just asked her another question, and as soon as he asked it, a look of open surprise spread across Stephanie Dobson's face.

"You said that people didn't take your findings seriously. Have you talked to any of them about it since the power went out?"

For a moment, Dobson's mouth opened, then closed again, then remained open. It seemed that Adam had just suggested something that had simply never occurred to her otherwise-magnificent mind. However, she wasn't replying to his question, so in the end, he decided to explain what he meant.

"People aren't like computers, Doctor Dobson. They don't always respond the same way to the same information. Sometimes, new experiences will give them a new perspective on themselves and their approach to life. In particular, when their whole world is overturned, they might have to reconsider everything; including their self-righteous approach to their field."

"You're just trying to give me false hope." Dobson concluded a bit angrily, but Adam shook his head.

"No. I'm trying to make sure that you're being thorough enough. I don't want you to resort to brute force when there are other experiments that you haven't tried yet."

Dobson continued scowling for a few moments, but at last, she spoke to Adam very firmly, still looking extremely suspicious of him.

"I'll wait to see how all of this plays out. If the power comes back on, and things go back to the way they were before, I won't have any choice, but for now, we'll just wait and see what happens as a result of all this. Now, you obviously need my help for something. What is it?"

The conversation had certainly been rocky up to that point, but at the very least, it looked like there was a chance that they might all be able to get back to Earth in one piece.

* * *

When the communication channel had cut out, Klaatu had immediately opened three more, although none of them seemed to be getting through, at first. It was several minutes before there was any hint that the war factory was receiving his messages. However, about fifteen minutes later, he started to get a a signal from someplace within the ship, as if someone had set up a signal-reception device apart from the rest of the spacecraft. The alien being was amazed, but he didn't hesitate, opening up communications with the new signal, and the moment that he did, what he saw on the other end sent a chill through his heart, because it was one of the monsters from Earth; the seven-foot giant with the misshapen body parts. In just a moment, the giant spoke up, and Klaatu was amazed by his words.

"This is Adam Frankenstein of Earth. Why did you attack us?"

Klaatu didn't feel like mincing words with anyone, however, and he wasn't about to just accept an accusation like that one.

"If you've rifled through our library, you should know it was our police force that attacked you; not us." Klaatu replied testily, "They're part of the system of maintaining peace in the cosmos that we've developed, and they make war on anyone who brings acts of violence to other worlds."

For a moment, Adam seemed to hesitate, so Klaatu decided to bring up one more subject with him.

"According to my research, the one who committed violence on another world was a daerlin; what you call a monster. That's very serious. Allowing daerlin to reach other planets is the most dangerous thing we could do, and I'm sure you'll understand if I'm direct about this; but another Earth daerlin recently threatened me with universal destruction and death."

However, the next words to come out of Adam's mouth brought a slight ray of hope to Klaatu.

"He's dead." Adam said flatly, "I killed him."

Still, Klaatu didn't want to jump to conclusions about any of that, so for a moment, he just asked "Why?"

"Why do you think?" Adam asked back, "I don't want countless people to die, just because I stood by and did nothing. I was obligated to stop Dracula, for the sake of protecting everyone, and that's why I'm contacting you. I want to know what I can do to save everyone from annihilation."

The question made Klaatu feel very surprised, and just a little hopeful. There were no records of any daerlin ever being that reasonable in the past, but it certainly looked as though Adam was both a monster, and a decent man; perhaps even a champion of men; the very thing that Klaatu had been hoping to find. In that moment, he decided, though it was risky, he was going to trust him, and try to settle things between them with some kind of bargain.

"Listen to me, then." Klaatu said sadly, "I've already gathered a lot of information on what's been happening on Earth, but if you don't mind, I'd like a second opinion on some of it. Then, we'll decide what needs to be done. Now, I can't change Gort's programming completely, but I do have one line of code, which I can transmit to him, which will fool him into thinking that Earth is a completely new planet, which has never expressed aggression on other worlds before. I can't risk using that code more than once, though. It'll give your people a second chance to escape from this kind of attack in the future, and make no mistake; there are many more war factories, just like this one."

"Even if you gave the Earth a second chance, that wouldn't solve all our problems." Adam replied grimly, however, "The next time violence was committed on alien soil, this whole thing would start up all over again."

"Unfortunately, that's true." Klaatu replied somberly, "However, I can't do anything to prevent that on my end, and you can't do anything about it either. Because of that, I think that what we really need to accomplish is to figure out how to prevent this scenario from occurring again."

For a moment, Adam looked very concerned and thoughtful, but when he spoke again, he seemed only half-committed to his next idea.

"I suppose that I could go around tracking down the vampires you mentioned a little while ago. You said that Earth had become a breeding ground for vampires, and if I could just locate them all..."

"Unfortunately, I don't think that's the whole problem." Klaatu replied sadly, "Tell me something, Adam. Suppose that you succeed in killing every vampire on Earth, and in the end, the only people left are the humans. They start to spread out and build colonies on other worlds, as I'm sure they would, terraforming uninhabitable worlds to suit their needs. Do you think that, when they reach these other worlds, the humans would be civilized enough to never once attack or kill another human being within those colonies?"

That, fortunately, seemed to give Adam pause, because it was the only really important question. His hesitation told Klaatu all that he needed to hear.

"I don't like having to even discuss this sort of thing," Klaatu said at last, "and I don't like having to paint all humans with a broad brush, because I know there are still some wise men and women among you, but by and large, your societies have regressed to arbitrarily-humanist barbarianism. In fact, I'd say that many of them are nearly to the point of forced, survivalist anarchy. To let your people travel to other worlds at this point would be no favor to them. They'd only be dooming themselves, just as surely as if they were trying to colonize a supernova. The question now is, Adam, is there hope for the human race?"

"There's always hope." Adam replied, though he didn't seem to know how, exactly, to make things work out, "Circumstances could change for them, and their mindsets could change as a result of that. In the meantime, we just need some means of preventing people from traveling out into space anymore, for their own protection."

It wasn't the first thing that Adam had said, which had really surprised Klaatu, but it did make a few things clear to the alien being; namely, that Adam really was a champion of man, because he was willing to choose the good of his people; as a group and as individuals, over their ambitions or temporary feelings. He was a strong sort of person, Klaatu thought; just the sort of man that humanity needed.

"The obvious solution is to simply leave the power to your world off for good." Klaatu replied sadly, "It's a harsh thing to ask of your people, but it would prevent them from... Well, you only reached us yourself by using one of our own power sources to build a rocket. Without that, and without electricity, you wouldn't be able to reach space anymore; at least not for a very long time. Still, it makes me sad to rob your people of something which has virtually become the keystone of your culture and society."

However, when Adam replied to that, there was a slight note of anger in his voice.

"It makes me sad too. Sicknesses and injuries will need to be cured with older, less effective methods, or will go uncured. Economies will collapse, communications between people will regress to the pony express... Still, I can't imagine anything that would be better for mankind."

"If you'd like, we could restore power to communication satellites, hospitals and transmission devices." Klaatu replied, "Making it permanent would require a few weeks to set up, but..."

However, Adam was looking absolutely miserable when he responded to that.

"Unfortunately, you wouldn't be doing us any favors if you did. Satellites, televisions and movies; in fact, most of our 'culture' as you call it, has become nothing more than a mass of empty propaganda, promoting the mentality that we all have a 'right' to do horrible, wicked things, and as for hospitals, I can't think of anyplace in modern society where more and graver evil is done. Just being intelligent or technologically-advanced doesn't make a person civilized, Klaatu, and some of the brightest people on Earth are also the worst barbarians. That's how it's been for as long as I've been around. In fact, my father was the same way."

"Human beings can be incredibly selfish, and I can't think of anything that's made that worse than modern, human culture. For our sake as a society and a species, it should be brought down; at least until we can get a few things resolved. Right now, people just aren't paying enough attention to the world around them, and many of them don't even realize the true nature of the problems they're facing. Human 'culture' is largely to blame for that."

"Once people are grounded in reality again, and start thinking clearly, they can either destroy one another, or rebuild the kind of half-civilized world they once had, but either way, they can do it without distractions, pride and lies assaulting them from every direction. No one hates making a choice like this more than I do, but I just don't see a better way to approach this problem than to leave things just the way they are right now."

"If your people ever find out that you made this choice on their behalf," Klaatu replied sadly, "they'll probably want you dead."

"They want me dead already." Adam replied, however, "What do I have to lose?"

The alien emissary, however, still didn't smile.

"I don't have any problem agreeing to this kind of bargain, though it doesn't make me happy. Each of us is taking risks, and each of us is sacrificing. Using this code may get me into some trouble with my superiors. I may even be imprisoned for it. However, if it will save the human race from extinction... my own fate isn't as important. You should gather your remaining forces and return to Earth, Adam. May the Almighty Spirit bless you on your journey."

Then, with a sigh, Klaatu turned the transmission off, and stood up for the first time in hours. He would have been lying to say that he was satisfied with the way things had turned out, but at the very least, Adam Frankenstein seemed like the kind of person that he could trust. He was willing to take a risk or two for him.

* * *

Getting Klaatu's help had been an important second step in the process of saving the planet Earth, but as soon as the transmition cut off, Adam asked Dobson to help him locate the machine that was subduing Earth's power, and with a smile, she obeyed, bringing up a map of the war factory again, and showing one spot in particular, which was marked in blue on it. That spot was the only place in the ship that was still sending any kind of power transmission to Earth, and Adam knew that was what he was looking for. Klaatu had just said that he had the authority to turn power on and off to certain things, and not to others, and that kind of elective control over Earth's power meant that an active machine was needed to keep the power off. Soon, he and Dobson had arrived at the location of the machine, but despite all that he'd seen already, he was still amazed by the sight of it.

The device that was apparently responsible for the power losses was very, very small. There was a setup of lights and antennae-like machines all over it, which was about the size of a basketball, but the small, cubical device inside the setup, connected to it by strong-looking wires, was absolutely tiny; about the size of a pin's head. Adam had to get pretty close to it before he could even see it properly, and it left him wondering just how much of it was actually necessary. Fortunately, however, it seemed that Dobson had already realized what he was planning, and was beginning to disconnect it, bit by bit. It required removing several cables from the machine; most likely control cables, but no matter what they did, Dobson could probably figure out how to make the device work without them if she had to. The important thing, for the moment, was gaining permanent control of the machine.

Before long, Dobson had finished disconnecting the whole, ball-shaped apparatus from the rest of the ship, and held it out to Adam to take, which he did. Then he'd asked her if there was any way to quickly locate the others, so that they could all leave together.

* * *

It was several hours before all of them had managed to gather in the launching bay where Dobson had been modifying the alien attack machine for use as a rocket ship, and it took a few moments longer for all of them to be briefed on Dracula's betrayal. It was strange, in a way. Adam hadn't expected that news to go over well with the others, but in the end, nobody really questioned it. They'd seen him talking about it on video, and they'd all known what kind of person the vampire was, so the idea of him betraying them all hadn't, apparently, been too far-fetched for any of them.

Soon, they'd all gotten into the robot together, and Dobson had sealed the enormous doors behind them, then moved over to the control panels, and that was when Adam finally had a chance to look over their team.

Barry Hammerson had apparently changed into his true form at some point during the mission, but it was hard to tell, because he was completely back to normal, and he actually looked a lot more comfortable and satisfied than he had before the mission had begun, as if he'd learned something new about himself on that mission; something very important.

The Gill-man's expression was just as unreadable as always, but it was clear that he was exhausted, and it wasn't hard to tell why. No matter what kind of struggles he'd been in recently, the fact remained that he'd been out of water for a very long time; too long, in fact. His skin looked like it was drying up, and Adam knew that once they got back to Earth, the first thing to do would be to dunk him in a tank or an ocean somewhere; someplace where he'd have the chance to recover from his obvious dehydration. Still, the Gill-man had a fresh look of confidence in his eyes too, in spite of his dehydration. It pleased Adam to see that.

Another member of their team, who was looking even more confident was Kong, which was quite a feat, since in all the times that Adam had seen Kong, he'd never looked as if he really doubted himself. Still, on that expressive, gorilla face, Adam could see a look of clear triumph, which hadn't fully been there before, and every so often, Kong would glance off to one side at Nancy, who wasn't paying nearly as much attention to him as she had been before. Still, the huge ape almost didn't seem to care. It was as if he'd won a great victory for Nancy's sake, and his own, and even if no one else recognized him for it, the victory was enough for him.

As for Nancy Archer herself, there was a sense of confidence about her too, but mostly because she didn't look worried about anything else that was going on around her. The giantess looked as if she were carefully thinking things over in her mind; as if she were struggling to solve some mystery that she'd never really bothered with before, or reconsidering something that she'd always taken for granted in the past. She looked so involved in her own thoughts, that Adam didn't like the idea of interrupting her; not even for something important. Still, the very fact that she could get lost in her own thoughts while surrounded by so many other monsters was a sign of just how much she'd learned to trust them all during their time together.

Compared to all of them, Dobson seemed to have gone through the opposite kind of change. In some ways, she was still the same, still frenetically working with the machines in front of her, but before going on that mission, she'd always seemed to have boundless confidence, and at that point, she was finally starting to look a bit nervous. In fact, Adam realized, it had really started when he'd told her about Dracula's betrayal, and how he'd needed to kill the vampire, in order to save the universe. In a way, it made him feel pretty bad to have damaged her confidence so much, but then again, if she'd been telling him the truth, and really did have some plan to take control of people's minds, then he couldn't just let that rest. After a while, he'd actually learned to find Dobson's confidence reassuring, but he couldn't cooperate with any more acts of villainy; not for anyone.

For a few moments, Dobson worked with those controls in front of her, typing commands into keys, and activating switches. However, just as the ship's engines began to activate, there was a thud from the side of the vessel, and Adam felt the whole craft shaking a bit from the impact. For a moment, Dobson stopped, looking a little confused, and turned back to the controls, but the noise repeated again a moment later; a pounding sound on the side of the ship. Quickly, Dobson typed in a few more commands into the controls in front of her, then after waiting a few seconds, she moved over to the door and opened it again, and there, Adam saw the last member of their team, and for some reason, he was relieved by the sight.

Imhotep looked a bit incomplete. Sections of him were missing, as though someone had taken him apart, and tried to put him back together without all the pieces, but in spite of that, it was clear that he was still perfectly capable of moving, and of using his powers. He looked a bit frazzled, and the bottom of his robes were still being gradually pieced together, from a series of sand grains that floated along behind him through the air. Of course, getting him caught up on everything that had happened since his attack against the outside of the alien ship would take some time, but in a way, Adam thought, it was good to have all their surviving members together again.

"I take it that the mission is complete, and the Earth is now safe from these creatures." were the mummy's first words, as soon as he stepped into the ship, and took a seat, still very confident, in spite of how much weaker he looked.

"It looks that way." Adam replied quickly, "The aliens made a bargain with us, so for now, the fight's over."

Imhotep looked a bit bored at that point, though he may also have been a little tired as well. It was hard to say, just from looking at him. Still, in the end, he just sat on the floor of that makeshift rocket, and said "Alright. Let's return to Earth, then."

Of course, Adam hadn't really expected Imhotep to jump up and down celebrating their victory, but it almost looked as though the mummy was absolutely refusing to react to anything that had just happened to him. Furthermore, he didn't even seem to notice that Dracula had gone missing, and that bothered Adam even more.

"Imhotep..." Adam said nervously after just a moment, "Aren't you curious about what happened to Dracula?"

However, the mummy just gave Adam a brief glance when he asked that question; a glance with no real enthusiasm behind it, and when he replied, his words really bothered the patchwork man.

"No. He never made much of an impression on me. If he decided to stay behind, I don't really care. If he's dead, I don't see any reason to mourn him. You were the only one who truly made any impression on me, Adam Frankenstein. You both saved me and annoyed me. If you had been the one to disappear, I might have reacted differently. However, I owe Dracula nothing."

Adam still felt uncomfortable about the mummy's reaction. On the one hand, it was sort of hard to argue with him. Dracula hadn't exactly made an effort to endear himself to any of them, and he certainly hadn't been the kind to risk his life for any of the others. On the other hand, just by reacting that way, Imhotep was proving his own cold-heartedness. It wasn't a positive sign, he thought, but then again, there wasn't much he could do about it either.

The creation of Frankenstein continued thinking about that sort of thing for a while, as the side of the room that the ship was in opened up into the vacuum of space, and their makeshift rocket took off, traveling outwards with even greater speed than before, away from the heavily-damaged war factory, and back towards Earth.


	29. Chapter 29: Epilogue

Chapter 29: Epilogue

* * *

The trip back to Earth, as it turned out, was fairly uneventful. Nothing else was heard from Klaatu or Gort, and aside from the Gill-man's worsening health during the brief trip, and the difficult experience of re-entry, there weren't too many extra surprises.

Dobson succeeded in landing the ship in the ocean near London, and of course, the first thing she did was to tilt the rocket on one side, so that it could be used as a boat, and open the main door to let the Gill-man out into the sea. It took him several seconds to recover from his dehydration, but when he finally did, he swam off without another word to any of them. Adam had a feeling that it would be a while before they saw him again, if they ever did, but there were other things to worry about, because it looked like it was time to abandon ship, and head for shore.

Still, as for what to do after that, Adam wasn't sure. He still had the device that was keeping the power off, and as far as he could tell, it was still working. He might want Dobson's help in figuring out how to control it, just in case there was ever a reason to turn some of the power back on, but aside from that, he wasn't sure what, if anything, could keep their little group together. Imhotep had already gotten to his feet, and looked like he was about to head off, just as wordlessly as the Gill-man had, but somehow, Adam just didn't feel right about that.

"What are you going to do next?" Adam asked the mummy before he could reach the door. However, Imhotep finally began to smile at that point.

"I expect those aliens to betray us, and return. When that happens, I will still be here. However, in the meantime, I have every intention of returning to my people. Though strange, inefficient philosophies have invaded the land of Egypt, there are still a few who would wish to live by older ways. Perhaps I will gather them into a new kingdom of my own; a new nation, ruled by Pharaoh Imhotep the first. With my powers, I can walk easily among the people, talk to them, find out about them, and make them all my offer without any danger to myself."

For a moment, Imhotep seemed to be deep in thought, but at last, he turned to Adam, and spoke in something that sounded a bit like amusement.

"Just before we visited the sacred pool, I told you that we were the ones with the power; that we had the strength to guide the destiny of our people. Perhaps the people of my homeland will not find me such a cruel ruler, though I will not give them the freedom to engage in meaningless violence, as they have in the past."

Then, in just a moment, Imhotep had leapt up onto the top of the rocket, and soon, his whole body had changed its shape; twisting and dissolving into a tremendous cyclone of sand, which sped off across the ocean with tremendous speed just a moment later. Of all the members of their team, Adam trusted Imhotep the least, and yet, he didn't feel it would make sense to panic over the mummy's future plans. For the first time in his un-life, he'd participated in a mission to do good, and the patchwork man had some hope that that habit might start to rub off on him.

In just a moment, however, Adam had turned to face Nancy, and asked her a very serious question.

"What's Kong going to do from now on?"

Nancy looked a little confused, for a moment, but she must have known what Adam was really asking. Kong had basically been hanging around with her for longer than the two of them had known Adam, and somehow, the idea of taking him back to the United States, to be locked up in another facility didn't seem right; especially after all they'd been through together. Kong was Nancy's friend, and she clearly wanted better for him than that.

"The island where Kong used to rule is long gone..." Nancy said sadly, "I read the report on that. Still, there must be a jungle someplace where he can be happy. Maybe I'll find it somewhere in Africa or South America if I look. I trust him now, and I want him to be happy, but... Well, I know he can't really be happy with me, and I can't really be happy with him. He needs to be with other gorillas, and I admit, I've been trying to deny it, but I need to be with other human beings."

That comment surprised Adam Frankenstein just a little.

"So you're going back home?" Adam asked in surprise, although Nancy didn't seem sure of just how to answer that at first.

"I don't really have a home anymore, exactly." she said, "I haven't had one for a while, but I think I'll go back to the United States anyway, even if it's just to make a new home for myself, and maybe give myself the chance to meet a few good people. What about you? What are you planning next?"

However, in some ways, Adam felt pretty sad about what he had to say. He still admired Nancy a lot, and he would have preferred to continue traveling with her for a while, but he still had something else to do; something very important.

"I have the device that Klaatu used to shut off the world's power." Adam replied, "If Dobson will agree to help me, we'll try to figure out how it works, but I'm going to protect it from now on, and wherever I go, I'll take it with me. I'm also thinking of looking for some of the vampires who Dracula was responsible for creating, to try to keep them from multiplying anymore."

"I'm sure they couldn't have a worse enemy than you." Nancy replied with a smile, "You're awesome, Adam."

"What?" Adam asked, suddenly feeling a little bashful at having received a compliment like that from her, "Aw-awesome? What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're a real hero." Nancy replied, however, smiling in admiration, "It's always tough for you, but you're always trying to help people as much as you can."

However, Adam started to frown a bit when she said that, and at last, he replied "It's the only thing I can really do right now. I mean, I know what it's like to be selfish, and prey on people for greed and revenge. I couldn't go back to that kind of life."

Barry didn't seem to have paid too much attention to what those two were saying, though he must have heard Nancy's big, booming voice all across the ship. However, he'd just looked very deep in thought for the most part, and when the conversation between Nancy and Adam had gotten to that point, he got to his feet, looking a little uncomfortable. In fact, he looked like he wanted to talk to Adam about his own plans for the future when they were alone. He obviously trusted Adam a lot more than any of the others, even though none of them had ever betrayed him either.

However, in just a moment, Dobson shut off the rocket, and turned to face Adam with a very confrontational scowl on her face.

"Let me say something right now, Adam." Dobson said at last, "I don't feel the least bit happy about the idea of you taking that machine with you. I'd much rather keep it in a vault somewhere, and just bury it underground. Besides, the whole idea of completely giving up on electricity bothers me. I mean, I'm still a scientist."

"Well, that's why I want you to help me figure it out." Adam explained, "I thought you might want to find out more about the machine yourself, so that..."

"Don't give me that." Dobson replied, "You're not doing this to increase my knowledge of the universe. You're doing it because you want to be the one who controls the world's electricity. Don't try to tell me I'm wrong about that. You're being awfully arrogant, Adam."

However, when he responded to that accusation, Adam was starting to look very angry, and even Nancy seemed a little worried at that point.

"Doctor Dobson, when I was on that alien ship, I heard Dracula talking about how he'd planned to betray us, and how he wanted to sweep over the universe with an army of monsters. I could have gone along with his plan, pretended I'd never heard it, and just let it happen, or I could have exorcized him to prevent it. You could accuse me of being arrogant for making any of those choices. The fact of the matter is that this is what it means to have power and be willing to use it; every decision you make could lead to people dying, and if you can make those choices without any regrets, someone is going to accuse you of arrogance, but I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm trying to do the right thing, and right now, if I let mankind blunder back into space again, that wouldn't be right. We're not ready to visit alien worlds yet, Dobson. That's not a choice I made; just a simple observation. I think that what just happened to us proves that. Wouldn't you agree?"

However, for some reason, not only had Dobson stopped scowling, but she actually looked like she was starting to cheer up. For once in his life, Adam's words had had the desired effect, and Dobson was smiling openly when she replied to him.

"I suppose you're right. When you've got as much power as we do, every choice seems arrogant and prideful. I'm still not comfortable with the idea of you holding onto that alien machine, but if you keep in touch with me, so I can find you whenever I need to, we'll call it even."

Then, in just another moment, Adam and Dobson were shaking hands, and the group was making plans to meet one last time in their old base; at the mansion of the late Lord Dracula.

* * *

Barry Hammerson had hung around the base when Nancy and Kong had started out on their journey together, and he'd continued to live there for the next few days, barely saying a word to anyone, as Stephanie Dobson and Adam had determined how the alien machine worked; a process that had required quite a bit of research and study. However, in the end, it seemed like Dobson had figured out its secrets, because she had a very big smile on her face after the first few days of work, and that was when Barry had stepped into the lab, where Adam and Dobson were putting away machine parts together.

"Excuse me..." Barry said, looking at both of them for a moment, and causing them to look back up at him, "Are you done?"

For a moment, Adam looked a little confused, but soon, he asked "Well, you weren't waiting for us to finish, were you?"

"Sort of..." Barry replied, however, "I mean, I'm not sure what you're doing in here, exactly, but it must be important... I didn't want to interrupt."

"No, that's alright." Adam replied quickly, "What's the problem?"

"Actually, it's not really a problem, exactly..." Barry said just a moment later, starting to brighten up, "The truth is, I think I've figured out how to repress the evil will of the werewolf while transformed. I changed once while I was on the alien ship, and I was still in control. Now, I wasn't at full power there; not like when I fought the avenger of Thoth, but I think if I keep my cool and do everything I can to stay in control, I should be able to hang onto my free will, even in my transformed state."

Somehow, Adam looked like he was having a hard time believing that, but Dobson didn't seem to question it. She just kept smiling, almost as if she'd been expecting him to say something like that. However, it was Adam who spoke next.

"I hope you're right about this, Barry. I've seen a lot of werewolves who thought they could control themselves in their transformed state. It never worked out well."

"You also said I was probably different from every other werewolf you'd met." Barry replied with a smile, "I'm pretty sure about this. Of course, I won't really have proof until the next full moon, but for right now, I'm going to head out. I may start looking for you again at some point if things don't work out, but then again, if they do... If they do... Well, if they work out, maybe I'll be able to start making a life for myself again. I think I probably shouldn't go back to Kelly, but maybe I can have a chance to be happy anyway."

Adam still didn't look too pleased with Barry's response, but he didn't reprimand him either. In just another moment, the two monsters were shaking hands, and Adam had a somewhat sad look on his face as he recognized that his other friend was about to leave.

"Be careful out there." Adam said, finally starting to smile a bit, "Don't give in to the evil inside of you, no matter what."

"You too." Barry replied, smiling back.

* * *

It didn't take Adam long to realize what Barry had meant by that. Every single person; monster and human had to fight for their lives against temptations and wickedness from within their own hearts. Some temptations were stronger than others, but on the whole, that wasn't really something that divided them from one another. Somehow, Barry Hammerson had managed to fight the evil within him, and reduce it to another mere temptation in his own life, and that meant that his relationship with Adam was changing quite a bit, because suddenly, Barry didn't need Adam as much as he once had.

Adam Frankenstein wasn't really sure why that didn't make him feel miserable. Some part of him had sort of been enjoying his time spent with Barry; teaching him, and being there to support him, but maybe it was like a father's love for his child, in a sense. Children started off dependent on their fathers, and in the end, became independent, which was just another source of joy to their parents. It was still a little confusing, but as Barry left the base one last time, and headed back out into the world, Adam didn't find himself feeling any regret over how things had turned out.

Of course, that only left one loose end to tie up, and in some ways, it was one of the most dangerous ones that Adam had to deal with.

"I assume I can just take the machine with me anytime." Adam said, and Dobson nodded quickly in reply, glancing off to one side as she spoke to him.

"I've marked all the controls on it, so it should be easy to master, if you ever decide to break your word and switch the power back on."

"I don't plan on doing that." Adam replied, "Still, I don't know what kinds of circumstances might arise in the future. What about you? What's next on your schedule?"

"I'll be flying back to my home very soon." Dobson replied with a casual tilt of her head, "I suspect it'll be under attack by vultures before too long, and may eventually need some input from me in defending itself."

"Vultures?" Adam asked in confusion, "What are you talking about? Are you saying someone's going to attack your home, to try to pick it clean?"

"My house is the only one left in the world, aside from this one, that still has its lights on." Dobson responded, "Of course people will try to steal my technology. I need to make them realize their place in that respect. When they understand that they can't overpower me, I can start doing things with them."

"Things?" Adam asked suspiciously, however, "What kinds of things?"

However, Dobson started laughing when he asked that question, and after a few moments, she spoke again with even more amusement in her voice.

"Adam, you must realize that without power, a lot of things about the world will change. It won't be an easy transition for the people of Earth, and I don't think too many major governments will survive as anything more than a skeleton of their former selves. I don't think that peace-keeping forces will be quite as effective as they were in the past either; especially after all those alien attacks."

"Essentially, what I'm saying is that I suspect individual communities will be hit the hardest by the economic consequences of the choice you've just made, and once their survival is on the line, there's going to be more division between them than ever." Dobson continued after a brief pause, "When that happens, each one of us will have a very good chance to establish a power base among them, for their protection, and our own. That's what I meant when I said I wanted to do something with them. I want to make them my own little army, for the sake of their own safety, of course. After all, with my technology, I could help several communities survive the difficult times ahead, and after everything I learned from you and those aliens, there's no limit to what else I could uncover."

For a few moments, Adam just looked at Dobson as if she were an alien herself. He'd realized, of course, that of all of them, she had the greatest scientific mind, but what he hadn't realized was just what an amazing tactical brain she had as well. It seemed that while Adam had been thinking about the long-term wellbeing of Earth and the human race, she'd been concerning herself more with her survival in the short term, and how she was going to maintain her power after all of that was over with. Both were necessary concerns, of course, but he'd mainly been ignoring one, and for a moment, he felt pretty bad about forgetting that. Dobson had been predicting the future to some degree; anticipating what the world would be like, so that she'd have more of a chance to control her section of it. However, in a way, that only scared Adam even more.

"Will your section of the world contain the people who laughed at your claims in the past?" Adam asked, looking sadly at Dobson again, but the toothy smile that was spreading across her face told him the answer to that question, even before she started explaining her plans in that regard.

"Probably. Still, everyone needs to survive, and if they fall into line, I can't think of any reason why I'd want to hurt them. I might even wind up providing their very livelihood. Isn't that generous of me?"

"Hardly." Adam replied with a sad shake of his head, "You're just doing it to one-up them. There's nothing generous about that. Something tells me you're going to revel in the power you'll have over those men."

"Maybe a little." Dobson admitted, still grinning broadly as she held her left thumb and forefinger up to illustrate.

"Just be careful." Adam responded firmly, "If you let it go to your head, you might wind up doing something you'll regret later. Taking care of a family isn't something that calls for arrogance or selfishness."

However, when Adam said that, a look of surprise spread across Dobson's face again, as though she really hadn't even considered that aspect of it. She'd been describing communities, nations, and people being dependent on her, and yet, she'd apparently never thought of it as a family, exactly.

"Heh." Dobson chuckled, looking at the floor for a moment in amazement, "A family."

However, she didn't say much more than that, before raising her left arm up, and pressing a switch on one side of her advanced bracers. Even as the blue fire rose up around her, teleporting her elsewhere, Dobson didn't say another word to Adam. She just kept smiling, until finally, she was gone, and Adam was alone with the alien machine; the burden that he'd accepted for the sake of the survival of mankind.

* * *

May 13th, 2031 A.D.

* * *

Bill Sheeran looked out across the fields of Nebraska through his binoculars, staring in amazement at the town on the horizon. According to some of his men, the town was called Oakesville, and it was much bigger and more populous than most of the towns in the state. A lot of people lived there, and as far as he'd been able to determine, there were a lot of children in that town. However, they also had one of the biggest barns that he'd ever seen, which probably meant that their town had resources like no other town around.

For a long time, the five families of marauders that he'd been leading had stayed well away from that town. After all, there just weren't enough of them to invade or rob a big community like that. However, Bill had finally succeeded in making a tentative peace with all eighteen of the other marauding groups in the areas around Oakesville. They'd all been suffering from a plain and simple lack of resources recently, and just hadn't been able to steal enough from the local towns to keep themselves going, so in the end, they'd all joined forces temporarily, in the hopes of accomplishing one big raid, which could get them all back on their feet.

Bill continued to stare at that huge barn, wondering to himself just what was kept in it. It looked like it could have held enough food for a dozen armies, and with any luck, he concluded, the army that he'd become a part of would find out what was in there soon enough.

* * *

The moment that the marauders had begun to gather on the horizon, near Oakesville, one of the lookouts had spotted them, and started raising the alarm. Immediately, men from all across town ran for their weapons and headed for the outskirts of the community, where the assembled enemy could already be seen; dominating the horizon. The sight of so many enemy forces was an ugly one. In fact, there'd never been an invasion attempt quite as bad as that one, at any point in the history of Oakesville.

David Chandler ran halfway across town as soon as the alarm was sounded, having picked up his weapon within moments of getting up. It hadn't taken him long to finish loading the weapon and run out to the edge of town. However, even once he'd gotten there, one thing about the situation had really puzzled him. He could look out at the horizon, and see the dark shapes of invaders preparing for battle. He could see his friends and neighbors, all armed and preparing to defend themselves as well, and he could see the eight-year-old Martin Larkin running back and forth among the crowd of people, handing out bayonets and extra powder. All around them, the wooden houses of Oakesville stood; virtually none of them painted, and yet, there was one important member of the town who was missing.

Quickly, David pulled Martin to one side, and bent down to ask him the question that must have been on everyone's mind, by that point.

"Martin, where's your mother?"

"The falls." Martin replied, looking helpless and afraid, "She always draws water at about this time every day."

"Well, I hope she can hear us over all that noise, because we really need her protection right now." David observed. However, for some reason, Martin didn't look like he really agreed with that. In a moment, he was shaking his head with a frown.

"We've got them outnumbered two to one. We'll survive."

That was the first time that David had really realized the truth about Oakesville, and the real reason why it had been so successful. The protection of Martin's mother had helped them to get started at first, but it was really her advice and guidance that had been protecting them since then. The large, unified families they'd had in Oakesville, the hard work they'd all needed to do, for themselves and for their neighbors, and all the time that they'd spent preparing to defend themselves, just in case the enemy ever attacked at a bad time. After all of that, if they still needed personal protection, it would be because they just weren't willing to take risks and make sacrifices of their own.

Of course, any one of them could still die in that attack, but it did reassure David a little, when he took a moment to remember all the adversity he'd conquered in the past, and all the support he'd gotten from his family and the other members of their community, to say nothing of what a nice experience it had been, working alongside Martin's mother in building and running Oakesville. Even if he did wind up dying in a battle like that, he wouldn't have changed a thing. His life had been full of suffering, but it had also been the stuff that legends were made of.

At last, the attack began, and the forces that had gathered outside of town began to advance, little by little, to within firing range. There was no way to tell how many of them were armed with guns, or how skilled they were at shooting, though. David just had to pray that all of his practice hadn't been in vain. Soon, the sound of the first shot being fired echoed across that town and the surrounding fields, but David still didn't fire back just yet. He was sure that first shot had been fired prematurely. The enemy still wasn't quite in range yet, and there still wasn't any real danger.

At last, however, the marauders advanced further, after firing several more useless shots, and came just within range of the town. That was the first time that David fired, and those around him fired as well, using the surrounding buildings for cover as gunfire was exchanged between both sides. It was one of the most horrible, ugliest things that could ever happen to a town like Oakesville, or indeed, to anyone. It was war, and it wasn't long before someone died.

* * *

Bill and his army had been so sure that they stood a chance at first; that they'd be able to just invade the town, and carry off its riches, but it seemed that the buildings were providing the town's inhabitants with much better cover, and as large as their own army was, the enemy was even more numerous.

He couldn't explain it. He didn't understand how a community like that one could possibly have grown so populous. Among the marauders, it was generally considered unwise to have too many children, because finding the resources to feed and support them was always a challenge. However, it seemed that the people of that town had been taught something a bit different. There were hundreds of people in that town, who were firing at them, and from what Bill could see through his binoculars, most of them were fairly young. Clearly, at some point during the last twenty years, someone in that town had gotten the bring idea to start having as many children as possible, and found a way to feed and arm them all. It was no wonder, Bill realized, that they'd needed to build such a large barn. Supporting a community of that size must have required a very impressive amount of space, just to store all the food they needed. However, even at that moment, there was one thing that he didn't realize about that town; that what he'd originally mistaken for a barn was actually not used to store food.

Even though the battle continued for a while, and the sounds of gunfire rang out across Oakesville, louder and more numerous than ever, there was another sound, gradually growing in the distance, to the point where even Bill was beginning to notice it; a repeated booming noise; at least once every second, which shook the ground as it grew louder. Finally, however, when the marauders in their army began to look upwards, screaming in alarm, and running away as fast as they could, dropping their weapons where they were, it became obvious to Bill that the fight was lost, even before he looked up himself, and saw one of the most distressing sights that he'd ever seen in his life.

There on the horizon, sprinting towards them with horrifying speed, was a dark brown-haired woman, dressed in green and brown, and every time one of her feet hit the ground, it felt like a miniature earthquake was shaking the whole region. She was scowling angrily at Bill's army as she approached, and the most discouraging part by far, was that she was at least fifty feet tall.

A couple of people seemed to have made the mistake of firing at the woman, but she shrugged the meager attacks off, like the bites of mosquitos, and charged into their midst, scattering them in all directions, and even kicking one or two of them into the air. Marauders dropped their weapons like flaming coals as they fled the scene of that battle, but the giantess didn't stop her attack until the gunfire had finally come to an end, and the enemy was on the run again.

Eventually, it turned out that dozens of marauders had perished during that attack, and their tentative alliance had been broken up for good. The number of Oakesville citizens who'd died during that small war had only been five.

* * *

The rest of the day, for the most part, had been devoted to cleaning up the battlefield and burying the dead, along with all the other jobs and chores that needed to be done daily in Oakesville, but somehow, it was all done with time to spare by the time the evening rolled around, and after dinner, most of the children in that town left their homes and headed towards the building that Bill had originally mistaken for a barn. In only a moment, the first of the children had started knocking on the door of that giant building, and soon, the massive door had been opened slowly from within to admit them. Right inside of that door, there stood Mrs. Nancy Larkin; formerly Colonel Archer of the United States army, and the sight of her home always gave the children a bit of a thrill.

Chairs and tables came in two sizes in that home; some perched on top of others, with stairs leading up to them; a design that Nancy had apparently seen somewhere else, and had replicated herself, when she'd first begun building her house. Inside, the first room of the house was the kitchen, with a big table in the center, and a large fire in a brick structure near the far end, which was gradually going out. The table in the middle of the room was over twenty feet tall, and the chair next to it was just as big. Perched on top of that table was another table; smaller and shorter, but with many more chairs around it, for the smaller people who were eating there.

Mr. Abe Larkin was sitting at one end of the table, all smiles as he talked to his children over dinner, while his wife answered the door. There were four children sitting around that table; Martin, the oldest, as well as six-year-old Kelly, four-year-old Daniel, and little Fred; who was still only about one and a half.

There were two other large rooms off to either side of the house; one of which had another fireplace, and the other was a bedroom. The rest of the doors in that house looked like mouse holes by comparison, though really, they were regular-sized doors. It was only that the fifty-foot mother of the house never needed to enter them.

"Hello, kids." Nancy said with a smile as she invited the crowd of children inside, "I wasn't sure you'd show up tonight, after what happened; especially you, Charlie."

Charlie looked a little sheepish when she said that, apparently not sure whether he was being scolded or not. After all, one of the people who'd died during the attack had been his own father; Wallace Dew. However, as uncomfortable as it was, it seemed that he had a reason for showing up, in spite of his grief and loss.

"Mrs. Larkin; I'm sorry. I just... It's really painful, what happened, but I don't blame you. I know you were just trying to help us, and you can't be everywhere at once... I just... I still need your help. I don't know what I'm going to do without dad."

Nancy looked, for a moment, as if she wasn't quite sure how to best reply to that, but at last, she said "When you're done grieving, we can talk about this a little more, but nothing I can say will really comfort you, will it?"

For a moment, he just looked amazed by her reply, but at last, he said "No. I guess not, but it might help if I could hear the rest of your story."

"Oh?" Nancy asked, finally daring to smile just a little, "Do you really want to hear the rest of the story? What about the rest of you?"

All of the other kids were just as enthusiastic, so after a moment, Nancy stepped past them and into the next room, leaving her dinner unfinished. All the children followed her quickly, eager to hear the conclusion to the tale she'd been telling them the night before.

The next room was a large, open space with a fireplace on one side, and a thick rug in the center. Some old books were also stacked up in shelves around the outside of the room, although there weren't any chairs in that room that were big enough for Nancy. For the moment, she just did what she always did, seating herself on the rug, and giving the kids a chance to sit down as well. Soon, when everyone was seated, Nancy continued her tale.

"Now, after that journey into space, we all came back to Earth in the same ship, except for Dracula, of course."

"Was that really it for Dracula?" one of the kids interrupted, but Nancy didn't mind.

"No." she replied, "We thought it was, but it seems like it's harder to kill an undead person than just exorcizing them once. We didn't see him again for a while after that, though, and at first, we all went our separate ways. Imhotep set up a colony of his own in Egypt, just like he said he would, and Kong went back to living in the wild. I didn't hear from him again for a long time. Barry became a performing acrobat for a while, and eventually managed to start a troop of his own. I think they're still operating in England. The Gill-man claimed that he lived in the wild again for quite some time after that, but I think he might have been lying about that, and Dobson actually founded a miniature country of her own, right in the middle of the United States; the republic of Ratia."

"What happened to Adam?" another of the children asked, and that time, Nancy's smile began to sag just a little when she replied to the question.

"He took the alien machine to somewhere in Asia, where he hid with it for a while. I didn't see him again until months later, and he never told me exactly where he'd been. I was setting up Oakesville at the same time, of course, though I didn't realize it. I thought I was just struggling to survive, and helping out a few other people too. I guess the thought of founding a new town didn't occur to me at the time. This was before I met Abe, of course, and I think that's about it. The end."

However, it was obvious that a couple of the children sitting there still weren't satisfied with that, and at last, one of them spoke up; a young girl named Lucy.

"That can't be all of it! What about the avenger of Thoth, and the medjai? What about Osiris? I mean, I thought they hated Imhotep. What happened with all that?"

"Yeah..." a little boy named Jason agreed in obvious confusion, "Didn't you ever have to worry about that? I mean, it still seems like a lot of other things must have happened..."

However, Nancy was already smiling when they started to ask those kinds of questions, and a moment later, she replied to them happily, glad that they were picking up on all of that so quickly.

"Oh..." Nancy observed with a smile, "The 'Egyptian Gods.' Yes, that problem did come up eventually, but that's another story..."

* * *

Author's Note: I may or may not continue this story one day. For now, this is all I have planned, so I may as well head off a few questions before anyone asks them.

First, this is definitely not a happy ending, but then again, it isn't exactly a happy story; just not angsty either. The tragic elements of the story, are, I'd like to think, similar to the tragic elements of life. At least similar enough to be taken as such.

Adam's choice at the end was a bit extreme, I feel. Honestly, I don't think I really agree with him; at least not totally, though there is something to be said for the notion that human technology has been used to do (and promote) a lot of evil over the last two hundred years. With some work, I think he could have found a better path of some sort, which didn't force him to take extreme measures like that, but I also don't see him as the type who'd put himself that much on the side of mankind, given his past.

I didn't plan to have Barry losing control of his transformations anymore. His struggle for control and civility is the same as the struggle we all face, and like all struggles, it's easier when you have the upper hand, as he now does.

Yes; I did plan to bring Dracula back at some point, more as an anti-hero than a member of the team, although if it came down to it, I think Imhotep would want to be part of the team again. He acts cold to the rest of them, but he clearly doesn't feel threatened by them, as Dracula did.

I'm not sure what else I could do with Dobson and the Gill-man. They're both compelling and powerful characters, and could have further potential, which is, I think, something to contemplate, and neither would be opposed to rejoining the team, though for obvious reasons, neither would be overjoyed at the prospect either.

Kong isn't coming back, but as for Nancy... Nancy would probably be the first one on board for another mission, and now the big question, which my brother asked me.

How could Nancy have a family? Well, if you must think about it (and I don't think you must,) then you could either just take my word that it's possible, since we know next to nothing about the process that transformed Nancy into what she is today, or else you could just assume that all her children were adopted. For our collective peace of mind, the latter assumption might be safer.

May you have a more fortunate future. God bless you all.


End file.
